Hand-Painted Kutani Footed Geisha Sauce Cup, Early Showa 1920s-30s

Price available upon request. This piece is currently being reviewed for museum acquisition; serious inquiries from private collectors welcome.

A footed sakazuki to be turned in the hand and admired from every angle: lift it and two figures bloom on the porcelain floor, a courtesan and her companion caught mid confidence, gilt chrysanthemums spilling up the well in crimson and gold. Consume, and the painting reveals itself slowly, the way the best secrets do.

This is Kutani ware, the gold flecked porcelain of Ishikawa whose painters have lacquered figures and flowers onto fine ceramic since the seventeenth century. The hand laid gilt and the intimate genre scene mark it as early Showa export work (1920s to 1930s), made for the connoisseur who liked his sauce served with a little theatre.

Estimated era: early Showa, circa 1920s to 1930s, roughly 90 to 100 years old; read from the hand painting, the worn gilt, the unglazed footring and the red seal mark on the base.

Materials: hand painted and gilded porcelain.

Patina note: One of one. Carrying the soft patina that only time can give; significant flaws are always detailed above.