Gourd-shaped vase with monkeys playing in wisteria (Lawrence 2011, pl. 124)

Under expert review: details on this record are provisional.

Gourd-shaped vase with monkeys playing in wisteria (Lawrence 2011, pl. 124)
Image: From Louis Lawrence, Satsuma: The Romance of Japan (2011), pl. 124, p. 178 · Used with permission of the rights holder · Source

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A gourd-shaped vase whose whole surface is given to monkeys frolicking in wisteria. Lawrence notes that monkeys are not usually found on Meizan’s pieces. He places the vase in the period when Meizan moved away from dense, cartouche-based designs towards simpler compositions, which he attributes to changing taste and to cost. He records a vase of identical shape in the Khalili Collection (vol. V, no. 96).

Compare: Khalili Collection vol. V, no. 96 (same shape, per Lawrence 2011, p. 188 n. 69); not on this site.

Description summarised from Louis Lawrence, Satsuma: The Romance of Japan (2011), pl. 124, pp. 178. Measurements and marks are as published and have not been checked against the object.

Provenance

Anonymous private collection, as stated in the source: Lawrence (2011, p. 259) says all Satsuma pieces in the book are from anonymous private collections in the USA and Europe (exceptions nos. 4, 29, 65 and 141, none of which is this piece).

Literature

Louis Lawrence, Satsuma: The Romance of Japan (2011), pl. 124, p. 178.