Tea bowl

The tea bowl is complete, with some glaze missing around the rim. It is circular in shape. In profile, the bowl has a slightly flared wall at the top, topped by a slightly flared rim. The lower part of the wall is curved towards the bottom, which is flat. The bowl rests on a ring-shaped foot. The outer rim of the foot is beveled and free of glaze. The bottom is flat and recessed; the decoration covers the outer face of the bowl, as well as the inner rim and bottom. The decoration is of the Chinese house style, treated in Imari. It is hand-painted in two-tone blue underglaze, then traced and painted in iron red, with gold highlights, over glaze. The inner rim is decorated with a blue tracery fillet; the background decoration is surrounded by a blue tracery ring, and features a small flower traced in blue and painted in red. On the outer wall, the decoration rests on a blue-painted fillet; it consists of a small house seen from three-quarters, traced in blue and painted in blue and red, with a gable wall adorned with a painted checkerboard; it is bordered by rocks traced and painted in blue with gilding. On these rocks rise leafy, flowering stems, the stems traced in blue and the flowers traced and painted in red with gilding; on one of the rocks rests an egg-shaped flower vase, traced and painted in blue; the flowers and stems emerging from it are traced and painted in red. The head of a deer is traced and painted in red near the vase. The opposite wall is occupied by a rock with a hole in it, traced and painted red, behind which grow three leafy, flowering stems, painted red and gold. In the background, three tufts of grass are outlined in blue. Above the scene, a mass painted blue with gold, similar to the rocks, reveals the gabled roof of a building traced in red.