Japanese Seto Horse Eye Oil Bowl Edo Period 19th C

A large shallow bowl that was hand potted and hand painted with an interesting design of large circles. It has a very modern feel even though it is very old.

A large shallow bowl with crackle glaze has an iron brown hand painted decoration of concentric circles that represent horse eyes. There are six saggar marks in the central well for firing. The body glaze is thick, feels soft and looks shiny. The rim mouth is painted in iron brown. The base has a flat cut shallow unglazed foot and is unglazed.

Provenance: The bowl was from the W. Gordon Menzie’s collection. Gordon was the curator of Crane Gallery, a well-known Asian Art Gallery in Seattle, for many years.

MEASUREMENTS

10 3/8” (26.2 cm) diameter x 2 ¼” (5.7 cm) deep. Weighs 2 lbs 5.8 oz (1090 g)

CONDITION

There is a chip and a few smaller glaze chips on the rim, as well as chips on the foot. There is a short hairline from the rim. There are kiln flaws, such as reserve holes, pin holes, line reserves, dark spots, and bumps.

A very old Japanese utilitarian bowl that was much used. I love the very free painted designs. Again, it reminds me of a mid-century piece.