Japanese Porcelain (Imari)

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	Japanese Imari in a variety of forms

Sallea Antiques offers collectors and decorators an extensive collection of Japanese and Chinese Export Porcelain from the 18th and 19th centuries including famille rose, Chinese and Japanese Imari, and Canton. The oriental potters and painters had produced exquisite porcelain for their own imperial courts for hundreds of years. The term “export porcelain” refers, however, to the pieces made expressly for the European market when, in the 18th century, the fashion in tableware among the European aristocracy shifted from base and precious metals to porcelain.

Japanese Imari

	Japanese Imari Group

Japanese export porcelain is generally dated from the mid-19th century as rigid self-imposed restrictions on trade in the 17th and 18th centuries limited Japan’s contact with the Western world to a few Dutch traders who brought porcelain out of the port of Imari. These 17th century pieces were prized by the European royals and inspired the establishment of porcelain manufacturing centers at Meissen, Sevres and Worcester. There was no great quantity of Japanese export porcelain produced until 1854 when the American Admiral Perry forced an open trade policy with Japan. Once established, the Japanese industry soon rivaled the Chinese for richness of design and color and gained popularity with both the Europeans and the Americans.

The term Imari refers primarily to porcelain with an underglaze of blue and a decorative overglaze enamel of predominantly red, gold and blue, but can also include the exclusively blue underglaze designs. Imari designs are a marriage of Oriental and European tastes as the western preference for symmetry and bright colors were combined with traditional Japaneses subjects. Among the florals, the chrysanthemum is the most common flower depicted as it appears in the Japanese Imperial crest.

The most noteworthy late 19th century pieces from the Fukagawa family in the town of Arita and those that bear the mountain trademark of Chuji Fukagawa are considered to be among the finest designs in all Japanese export porcelain.

Chinese Imari

Chinese Imari predates famille rose and was produced around the same period as famille verte, during the dynasty of K’ang His (1662-1722). Its design derives from the 17th century Japanese porcelain style which combined a blue underglaze with decoration in “rouge de fer” (iron red or rust color) and gold. The Chinese product differed from the Japanese Imari in that the porcelain was thinner and clearer in color. The decoration could also include painting in the famille verte enamels. Some of the earliest armorial services produced for the English market were done in the Chinese Imari style.

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