A rare Hagi-ware bowl in the form of a tawara (rice bale)


Edo period (1615-1868), 17th centuryThe high-sided, thickly-potted deep pinkish-brown bowl with a typical notched foot and inlaid white-glazed decoration of an impressed crucifix in the centre, flanked on either side with the horizontal lines and patterns on a conventional rice bale; with a lacquered-wood storage box. 9cm x 21.7cm (3½in x 8½in). (2).
|An almost identical bowl with an inlaid cross decoration but described as Shodai-ware made in Kumamoto Prefecture is illustrated by Suntory Museum, Kobe Municipal Museum and Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, eds., Nanban bijutsu no hikari to kage: Taisei oko kiba zu no nazo (Light and Shadows in Nanban art: The Mystery of Western Kings on Horseback), Tokyo, Nihon Keizai Shinbunsha, 2011, p.180, pl.115; another two Hagi-ware of the same tawara (rice bale) shape are illustrated by Asahi Shinbunsha Seibu Honsha Kikakubu, Ichi Raku, ni Hagi, san Karatsu: Momoyama kara gendai made (First Raku, Second Hagi, Third Karatsu: From the Momoyama Period to the Present Day), Fukuoka, Asahi Shinbunsha, 1977, pls.91 and 103.