Footnotes

Provenance:
Arthur Gerrish Cummer (1873-1943) and thereafter by descent

Bonhams is indebted to Japan's foremost scholar on Ko-Seto ware for writing the following essay.

瀬戸 鉄釉印花文瓶子 無名　鎌倉時代（１４世紀前半）

瀬戸窯は愛知県北端の猿投山(標高 629ｍ)の西麓に位置し、瀬戸市域を中心にして、尾張旭市・名古屋市守山区・長久手市北部・豊田市北端部にまたがる丘陵地に分布する古窯跡群である。その生産活動は平安時代の猿投山西南麓古窯跡群（猿投窯）の灰釉陶器の製作技術を引き継ぎ、11世紀末から無釉陶器生産の一時期を経て、12世紀末に新たな施釉陶器を焼き始め、以後、現在まで、日本最大級の施釉陶器生産地としての活動が続けられている。
　この瀬戸窯における鎌倉・室町時代の施釉陶器は、その他の中世諸窯が焼締陶器の壺・甕などの生産を行っているのと違って、四耳壺・瓶子・水注・天目・茶入・平碗・皿・鉢・仏花瓶・香炉などの小形貯蔵容器・酒器・茶器・食器・仏器の生産を行い、武士・貴族・富裕農民層の生活什器を賄っていた。
　瀬戸窯の瓶子は12世紀末から焼き始められ、腰が絞られる締腰型と直線状の直腰型の二種類があり、13世紀末までは灰釉製品のみが焼かれ、単一の印花文と櫛目文が施されるに過ぎなかったが、13世紀末以降に鉄釉製品が登場し、器面上半部に数種類を組み合わせる印花文が施されるようになり、14世紀には器面全体に印花文や箆描きの画花文が広がった。
　本器は14世紀前半の代表的な直腰型の鉄釉印花文瓶子である。成形は円形の底板の上に粘土紐が輪積みされ、口頸部は中位に鍔状の突帯を巡らし、胴部は肩が大きく張り出して底部で絞られ、器面が丁寧に撫で仕上げされて滑らかである。器面は印花文装飾が施され、頸部の周囲には剣先文を巡らし、胴部中央の三方には丸い輪郭の中に二輪の梅花と草葉が組み合わされた丸文様が配され、その周囲を菊花列と梅花列による五列の印花文帯で埋めている。全体に鉄釉が施され、肩部では飴釉状の黄褐釉となり、肩から胴部へ縞状の流下が生じており、黒褐色と黄褐色の斑の釉調となって彩りを添えている。
　保存状態は口縁端部に降灰除けの窯道具を剥離した痕跡と思われる小欠損と胴部一箇所に付着物を剥離したための表面剥離痕が認められ、底部には研磨痕が認められる時期不明の小孔が存在しているが、焼成状態が極めて良好な完工品であり、瀬戸窯最盛期の優品である。

The remains of the old Seto kilns are situated in northern Aichi Prefecture to the west of Mount Sanageyama (height 2064 ft), scattered throughout an upland region running from Nagoya's Moriyama district to Owari-Asahi City, northern Nagakute City and the northern edge of Toyota City (present-day Seto City is in the center of this region). Seto wares developed out of Heian-period ash-glazed ceramics produced in kilns at the southwest foot of Mount Sanageyama. After an interval of about 100 years from the end of the eleventh century when no glazed ceramics were produced anywhere in Japan, from around the end of the twelfth century the Seto kilns began to produce a new type of glazed ware and the region has been Japan's biggest producer of glazed ceramics ever since.

From the Kamakura period through the Muromachi period (12th-15th century) the Seto kilns produced small containers, sake wares, tea wares, wares for food and wares related to Buddhism. These included shijiko (vessels with four lug-handles), heishi (flasks), mizusashi ( ewers), tenmoku (tea bowls), cha-ire (tea caddies), hirawan (shallow bowls), sara (plates), hachi (bowls), bukkebyo (ritual flower vases), koro (incense burners) and other everyday wares for the military elite, the nobility and wealthy farmers, while other medieval kilns produced only unglazed wares such as jars and urns. Heishi first appeared in the Seto kilns at the end of the twelfth century. There are two types: one with a waisted lower body in meiping style and one with straight sides. For the first 100 years or so only ash-glazed pieces were produced and their decoration was limited to either impressed designs or simple incised comb designs but at the end of the thirteenth century an iron glaze was developed and decorators began to use different combinations of impressed and incised patterns. At first, these seem only to have been applied to the top half of the flask's bodies but by the middle of the fourteenth century the entire body of the vessels started to be covered with a combination of impressed and free-hand incised designs.

The vase on offer here is a fine example of an early fourteenth-century straight-sided iron-glazed flask with impressed and incised floral designs. It was formed by heaping up coils of clay "ropes" on a circular slab base. The neck is augmented with a flanged collar below the lip and the wide shoulders give way to a tapered lower body and foot. The surface has been carefully rubbed to a smooth finish. The neck is surrounded by a pointed collar pattern which was incised into the surface when the clay was still wet, and there are three large incised roundels with grasses and plum flowers surrounded by five rows of impressed chrysanthemums and plum flowers, all on the upper half of the body. The shoulder area shows a candy-like yellow-brown iron glaze running in drips down the waist and collecting in pools of black-brown with yellow hues in charming variations. The edge of the rim shows a small chip which might have been caused by the removal of a temporary cover fixed to the mouth during firing to prevent excessive kiln ash and grit from falling into the interior. The body shows the remains of a kiln adhesion, possibly from contact with another vessel.

This is a superior work from the kilns of Seto when they were at their zenith, fired in optimal conditions and perfectly finished

The flask was originally created to hold liquids but the hole in the base, a feature shared with many excavated examples, may indicate that it was used as a cinerary urn. Standing over 30 centimeters high, it is taller than most extant flasks of the period; larger examples are found only in Japanese collections. The broad shoulders and unusually full body give it substantial form and a massive profile. It is almost 50% greater in volume than any other early Ko-Seto heishi in a US museum collection.

For recently published similar examples, see Miho Museum et. al. Chusei no yakimono Rokkogama to sono shuhen (Ceramics of Medieval Japan, The Six Old Kilns and Their World), Koka, 2010, nos. 10 and 11; Tokyo Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan (Tokyo National Museum), Nihon no toji (Japanese Ceramics), Tokyo, 1985, nos.145 and 14; and Christie's New York, April 27 1994, lot 197, from the estate of Blanchette H. Rockefeller.

The Cummer family of Cadillac Michigan made their fortune in lumber. By the 1870s they had earned their first $100,000 in milling and lumber and by the end of the century the business had expanded to include railroads, shipping and mining. They held interests in Michigan and the Virginias, and were the largest private land owners in the state of Florida, with over 450,000 acres. Arthur Gerrish Cummer, the eldest son of Wellington Wilson Cummer (1846-1909) was educated at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he met Nina May Holden (1875-1958), whom he would later marry. They were passionate collectors of art and together built a large Tudor Revival house with magnificent gardens. At her death Nina May Holden gifted the home, gardens and the bulk of the art collection to start the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, Florida.