Image of Gallery in South Kensington
On display at V&A South Kensington
Ceramics, Room 145

Dish

1690-1720 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This large dish is an example of the type of porcelain made in late 17th to early 18th-century Japan for export to Europe. The areas of dark blue were achieved by painting with cobalt oxide under a clear glaze and firing to a high temperature in a reducing atmosphere - one in which the kiln is starved of oxygen so that the burning fuel draws chemically bonded oxygen from the reactive parts of the ceramic material, leaving them in a reduced state and changing their colour. The gold, red and other enamel colours were applied and fused on in subsequent, low-temperature firings. The distinctive so-called Imari-style colour scheme was much copied by 18th-century European manufacturers. The term Imari comes from the name of the port in western Japan through which this and other products of the nearby Arita kilns were shipped. Porcelains for export were sent to Nagasaki and then shipped abroad by Chinese and Dutch merchants, the Dutch, who were based on the island of Dejima, being the only Europeans permitted to conduct trade in Japan at this time.


Object details

Categories
Object type
Materials and techniques
Porcelain painted in underglaze blue, overglaze enamels, and gold
Brief description
Dish or Charger, porcelain, painted in the Imari-style palette, Japan, Arita, about 1690-1720
Physical description
Large round dish with cavetto decorated with a basket containing flowers, the broad rim freely painted with trees and plants.
Dimensions
  • Diameter: 56cm
Styles
Object history
Purchased from the Japanese Commissioners for the Philadelphia Exposition of 1876, accessioned in 1877. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.
Association
Summary
This large dish is an example of the type of porcelain made in late 17th to early 18th-century Japan for export to Europe. The areas of dark blue were achieved by painting with cobalt oxide under a clear glaze and firing to a high temperature in a reducing atmosphere - one in which the kiln is starved of oxygen so that the burning fuel draws chemically bonded oxygen from the reactive parts of the ceramic material, leaving them in a reduced state and changing their colour. The gold, red and other enamel colours were applied and fused on in subsequent, low-temperature firings. The distinctive so-called Imari-style colour scheme was much copied by 18th-century European manufacturers. The term Imari comes from the name of the port in western Japan through which this and other products of the nearby Arita kilns were shipped. Porcelains for export were sent to Nagasaki and then shipped abroad by Chinese and Dutch merchants, the Dutch, who were based on the island of Dejima, being the only Europeans permitted to conduct trade in Japan at this time.
Bibliographic reference
Augustus Wollaston Franks and M. Shioda, Japanese Pottery. [London]: Chapman & Hall Ltd., 1880. South Kensington Museum Art Handbooks; 18. Catalogue number 172
Collection
Accession number
330-1877

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Record createdJune 25, 2009
Record URL
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