Doe and Hope

Description

The Japanese Satsuma pottery vase and cover, having a body of slightly waisted cylindrical form applied to either shoulder with an angular handle and raised on three stub feet, the cover of domed form with a kiku-form knop with heart shaped piercings, decorated in overglaze enamels and gilding with The Thousand Cranes design, marked to the base Umatoyo.

In relatively good overall order the vases lid has at some point been cracked and then restored, the body with some decoration wear, crazing and general wear.
The influence of the Art Deco style was not unknown in Japan as can be seen by the profile of the handles of the present piece.

There were innumerable small factories producing so-called Satsuma ware at this time although the majority of them were not in the Satsuma region at all but in and around Osaka and Kyoto. The factory name on the base of this piece can be seen as a rebus of a cross within a circle. This is the "Mon" or clan emblem of the Shimizu family who controlled the Satsuma region from the mid 17th Century until the Meiji Revolution.

Very pretty and striking indeed.