Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 11. (Budapest, 1968)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Cseh, Éva: Some Early Imari Porcelains
SOME ÉVA CSEH EARLY IMARI PORCELAINS The so called Imari porcelains rather neglected and underrated at a time are mentioned more and more in the literature dealing with eastern porcelains. The greater part of Imari porcelains was made for export purposes, its appearance on European market and the possibility of its existence was determined by the temporary diminishing of Chinese porcelain export. The intensive period of the export is short, it may amount to some decades only. Both the export and the development stopped from 1729. 1 when the Dutch had established direct connections with Canton. According to Pope 2 Imari porcelains could appear in the 1680-ies, as he writes: "the dagh-registers of the Dutch East India Company do not mention Imari at all." Vessels which can be called Imari appeared first in the collection of Hampton Court Palace established in the 1690-ies and in the Dresden collection. Nearly all our pieces belong to the group of Imari porcelains the main characteristics of which are under-glaze blue, above-glaze red and gold polychrome enamels (colours). Often other jiolychrome enamels (colours) like leafgreen, turquoise-green, yellow and greyish-violet also appear but they get only lesser emphasis. From amongst the ornamenting motifs the most frequent are the peonia and the chrysantemum, while the flower basket, the phoenix and the space-filling lattice ornament are also frequent. Sometimes the whole surface of later Imaris is covered by an ornament reminding the textile-designs. In our paper we want to describe some nice early pieces belonging to our collection. With one or two exceptions they can be dated to the beginning of 18 th century. Naturally, their dating is problematic, it is nearly impossible to follow the history of the individual pieces. At present our only help is the comparative method, based on safely dated pieces, owing to which we can make attempts to determine the age of our pieces. Presumably the earliest of our pieces is a blue-and-white jug 3 with a handle ending in a spiral (Fig. 1.). There are bulging rings on the neck and below the paunch, above and under which indistinct wider-narrower stripes run all round. There is a close zigzag motif just below the rim. All round the paunch of the 1 Volker: The Japanese Porcelain Trade of the Dutch East India Company after 1683. Leiden 1959. 2 Pope: The Western View of Ko Lnari. Ko Imari (Old Imari) Saga, Kinkaido 1959. 3 Inventory Number 338. Height: 12.4 cm.
