P054 - MEISSEN KAKIEMON TEABOWL AND A SAUCER

 

Circa 1723, blue caduceus mark, incised Japanese Palace inventory number N: 354/w to the cup and N: 329/w to the saucer

The bowl octagonal, the saucer of shallow hemispheric form, each painted with flowering prunus and blue bird

5 1/8 in. (13 cm) diameter, the saucer (2)

 

LITERATURE

Cleo M. and G. Ryland Scott Jr., Antique Porcelain Digest, Newport, England, 1961, p. 189, plate 47, fig. 195.

 

EXHIBITION

On display in the Scott-Allen Collection at The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia from 1976 until 1996

 

NOTES BY CLEO M. AND G. RYLAND SCOTT, JR in the late 1950’s

OCTAGONAL CUP AND SAUCER - RARE MARKS

At the Sotheby Sale of July 9, 1957, while we were in Europe, we purchased this rare specimen, described there as follows: Item 130 - "Kakiemon. A Meissen octagonal Tea Bowl and Saucer with slight decoration of a flowering Prunus tree with a blue trunk, and a small blue bird in flight, CADUCEUS IN BLUE, AND ENGRAVED JOHANNEUN MARKS."

 

This is indeed an unusual and interesting specimen. Zimmerman says the caduceus mark was used in 1723. Some authorities think it was used only on pieces intended for the Turkish Trade.

 

The other mark known as the Johanneum Mark shows that this piece was in fact a part of the famous collection of Augustus the Strong, who used it as an inventory mark of his famous Japanese Palace Collection. The colors and decoration are extremely rare. Certainly no specimen like it was found by us in any of the collections that we saw on our trip and we visited about a hundred of the finest ones.