Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Lot 35
A rare Arita two-handled octagonal butter box and cover, late 17th century
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£600 - £800
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A rare Arita two-handled octagonal butter box and cover, late 17th century
Painted in underglaze-blue with a seated figure in a landscape, the cover similarly decorated and applied with a bud finial, the rim with a zig-zag border, 11.5cm high, 20cm across handles (2)
Footnotes
Provenance
With Robert McPherson Antiques, 2011
Literature
White, Mary, Eating at the Whites' House, Vol.3, 2022, p.398
The shape and style of decoration are based on a Dutch Delftware prototype.
For another example of this rare shape in the Groninger Museum, the Netherlands see C.J.A. Jörg, Fine and Curious, Japanese Ceramics from Dutch Collections, 2003, p.180, no.220, where the author writes that the piece was modelled after a Dutch butter pot made of pewter. Butter pots were a regular item in the early export assortment and were distinct from 'butter dishes'. The shipping lists to The Netherlands for as early as 1660 include 70 boterdosen (butter boxes), 16 'butter pots with covers' and 83 'square butter pots' in 1663, while in 1664, no fewer than 1008 'butter boxes' are mentioned. Jörg further notes that a similar example is in Rosenborg Castle, Copenhagen, where it entered the Royal inventories in 1783. According to its silver plaque, it had already been presented to the Royal Family in 1723.