Doe and Hope

Description

The Japanese stoneware satsuma charger, painted in bright enamels and a slip glaze depicting a red octopus or kraken being hunted by three frogs with pampas grass as spears, the octopus clutching a lily, to a spotted ground and patterned rim with clouds and lozenges, the whole surviving from the early twentieth century.

In good overall order the charger has no losses or restorations to note of, the body with some decoration wear, crazing and general wear. It is a fairly heavy example.

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. In Japan, an octopus is a symbol of someone who is handling a tremendous workload or handling multiple things at once.

We love the unusual and the octopus so we love this charger.