Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Lot 86
A Kakiemon circular dish, Edo Period (1615-1886), circa 1680-1700
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£1,000 - £2,000
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A Kakiemon circular dish, Edo Period (1615-1886), circa 1680-1700
Decorated in Kakiemon colours in blue, turquoise, iron-red and black enamel picked out in gilding, a phoenix in flight, peonies protruding from a banded hedge, some prunus and pine vegetation in the foreground, 22cm diam
Footnotes
Provenance
Drayton House
Private Collection
Christie's, 13 February 2003, lot 302 (part)
Literature
Ayres, J. (et.al.), Kakiemon, Porcelain from the English Country House, 1989, p.48, no.23
White, Mary, Eating at the Whites' House, Vol.3, 2022, p.158-9, fig.a
Ayres, 1989, p.23, notes that the extensive historic repairs on this dish demonstrates the esteem in which these kinds of Kakiemon pieces were held, as the author notes 'even at a house like Drayton it was worth using a repaired piece'.
For another example of Ayers J., Impey O. R., Mallet J. V. G., Porcelain for Palaces, 1990, p.151, no.121. Compare also to lot 87 in this sale, which is a Meissen version of the same pattern.
Drayton House, located near Lowick in Northamptonshire, is a Grade I listed country house described by Nikolaus Pevsner as the county's most impressive medieval mansion. Begun around 1328 by Sir Simon de Drayton, it has undergone architectural transformation in every subsequent century. The estate passed through some of England's most prominent families—including the de Draytons, Greens, Staffords, Mordaunts, Germains, and Sackvilles—without sale since 1361. Successive owners expanded and refashioned the house, employing leading craftsmen such as John Webb, William Talman, and Jean Tijou. Its history reflects the shifting fortunes of the English aristocracy, from medieval feudalism and Tudor politics to Civil War allegiances and Georgian refinement. Architecturally, Drayton preserves elements from the 14th-century hall and moat, Tudor extensions, and Baroque interiors, including a remarkable spiral oak staircase and an embroidered State Bed of 1700. Later Adam-style rooms introduced in the 18th century are regarded as among the finest in Northamptonshire. Still owned by the Stopford Sackville family, Drayton House remains a rare example of an unbroken lineage of private ownership, combining nearly seven centuries of English architectural and social history within a single, evolving structure.