For sale is a fine 19th century Meiji period Japanese Kutani pottery bowl. The bowl is 8 3/8 inches in diameter and stands 3 ½ inches tall. The interior is hand painted with scenes of ducks in a pond, three scholars, and a village, all painted separately with brocade patterns in between. The exterior is painted with a pair of birds and different flowering plants. The bowl has a glazed foot and an unglazed upper rim. The foot has a small glazed channel though it as shown. The piece is marked “KU-TANI” in gold in an iron red rectangle.
Condition on the piece is fairly good. There is an original firing crack in the foot trim, as shown. There is some wear to the decoration, namely in the interior, and a gilded coating on the unglazed rim is mostly worn away. Regardless, a very attractive and well decorated piece of old Kutani!