Footnotes

• 鍋島　染付唐花文高台皿　五枚　18世紀
  
  Nabeshima wares were made only for domestic consumption, and for presentation purposes rather than for actual use. They were not sold on the open market in the Edo period but was made in a limited number, with specific patterns, and in standardized shapes. These were decorated in a three ways: underglaze-blue and white (as presented here); underglaze-blue and white with celadon glaze and full coloured enamels. They are generally considered to be the finest porcelain made in Edo period Japan, both for their supreme technical and for the clarity, precision, and elegance of their designs.
  
  A number of Nabeshima dishes are known, featuring broad borders of formal designs but none with the identical design presented here. For other Nabeshima dishes decorated with a somewhat similarly-stylised floral border, see the Exhibition Catalogue, Nabeshima Ware, designs that inspire pride, Suntory Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2010, p.71, no.48 (painted in full-coloured enamels) and p.103, no.73 (painted in underglaze-blue); see also the Exhibition Catalogue, Iro Nabeshima, a Commemorative Exhibition, Asahi Shimbun, 1982, p.61, also illustrated in the Exhibition Catalogue, Les Cadeaux au Shogun - porcelaine precieuses des seigneurs de Nabeshima, Paris 1997, p.136, nos.47 & 48.