Weiner Mihályné szerk.: Az Iparművészeti Múzeum Évkönyvei 11. (Budapest, 1968)
HOPP FERENC MÚZEUM — MUSÉE FERENC HOPP - Cseh, Éva: Some Early Imari Porcelains
on the left above and below there are médaillons. The above one imitates a bee-cell, in the other we find a flower and tendrils in red background. Its curiosity is the fact that the outside contours of the médaillons were drawn by strong, nearly black under-glaze blue which dropped down a little. Probably this little piece of incompleteness — intentional or unintentional — has added to the strange impression given by the vessel. The same scamped vigorous ornamenting can be seen on the vessel in fig. 66. of "Old Imari". On the basis of these stylistic features we can suppose that our piece was made in the same period, at the beginning of 18 th century. According to "Old Imari" the stylized wave and bee-cell motifs occurred most frequently in the 20-ies and 30-ies of 18 th century. The last piece is a drinking vessel with an interesting form 11 , it is called also "kendi" (Fig. 7). Its decoration gives a strong impression. The stocky body is followed by a funnel-like, widening neck, there is a pouring-pipe on its side ending in a round mouthpiece. The colour of the under-glaze blue is dark, nearly black, the polychrome enamel colours —red, gold, turquoise, leaf-green, yellow— are lively. It is decorated by the common Imari motifs: chrysantemums and j>eonias. There is a stylized row of ornaments on the bottom of the vessel and below the neck: we can see red and green leaves with their points downwards below and a row of golden flower-tendrils on a stripe of under-glaze blue below the neck. On both sides of the neck there is a tree with bending branches and flowers. On the rim of the mouth bending outwards one can see three médaillons with flowers and there are branches with cherryflowers on them. There are tendrils on the pouring-pipe, the mouthpiece has a rim painted in gold. Its glaze has a greenish shade, it is granular on the neck but muslin-like in other places. One can see small cracks on the lower part of it. Presumably the vessel was made at the beginning of 18 th century. We can see pieces similar in drawing and style on fig. 36. and on page 345. of "Old Imari". 11 Inv. Nr. 5927. Height: 20 em.
