transfer printing

Moving Day…Precious Cargo

So the movers showed up promptly this morning and it was a whirlwind. I have so many fragile and precious items that we planned for a special internal tri-wall container in our container for breakables. So last week I had moved things from the staid and orderly…

…to over the top exuberant, by grouping like items with like. I hadn’t quite realized the sum total of blue and white porcelain I had collected over the years – and this still doesn’t represent all of it!

In under an hour, the movers had reduced it (or built it, depending on your point of view) to this. Someone commented on how neatly it was all stacked – c’mon, this is Japan after all.

I haven’t had a moment to blog, but at my final Kawagoe shrine sale a friend asked if there was anything I regretted not buying. Out of the blue I replied that I wished I had bought a blue and white benki – a vintage toilet. Lo and behold, the last dealer I went to had one for a bargain price. Stay tuned to see what I am planning on doing with it in Doha. You can see it tucked in there among the hibachi.

Details of some favorite Seto porcelain…

…including another last-minute purchase from Tomioka Hachiman, a Seto jubako, as if I needed another.

How long have I been promising a post on Kutani porcelain? At least two years! I promise to get to it one of these days. A little Imari snuck into this photo too.

Candlesticks galore…

…and the cream of a glass fishing float and bottle collection.

Not everything that needs to be packed originated here. I came with quite a few collections!

Lavender Staffordshire, better known as transferware, has been a lifelong passion. A rare color and quite difficult to find, I have been buying floral and neoclassical patterns since I was a teen. Mine was made in England (and in a few cases France) in the late 19th century as a shortcut to hand painting china. It actually has a reciprocal relationship with Asian porcelain if you think about it this way – Japanese inban is also transfer printed (they got the idea from the West) but many of the European transfer patterns (think Blue Willow for example) are based on Asian hand painted pieces. More about this here, here and here.

When we moved to Tokyo I knew it might be for 3-5 years – didn’t expect 9 – and we planned to rent out our apartment so we moved everything we owned including a few major antiques like this painted 19th century armoire. It has gorgeous flowers and birds on a background of that perfect French green-grey and its original bevelled mirror. You can see the campaign bed I wrote about the other day reflected and it has been in my daughter’s room since she was a baby. Typically, her bedroom in NY didn’t have a closet!

Our bedroom had another beautiful French piece, an antique Louis Philippe rosewood armoire – with its original mirror, sparkly with age. Luckily our wonky shaped Japan bedroom had an area with a raised ceiling or it would not even have fit.

When we moved to Tokyo originally, our container went at the beginning of summer although I didn’t travel there with the kids until late August. My husband took care of arranging the move in and we slept in our own beds the very first night we got there, which is actually quite unusual. What he didn’t tell me for months afterwards was that in order to get my beloved armoire into the bedroom, it had to be hoisted up through the window. I have to say I was happy to have missed it and just found it safely where it belonged when I arrived. So I went into today knowing that the only way out was the same as the way in and I was dreading it. Truth be told – and you can watch it on the video yourself – it was a non-event as the movers here are so great. Although, there are a few moments of drama around minute one.

A much more important truth to tell is that at the end of the day, the only truly precious cargo is the one reflected in the mirror, not the mirror itself.

But cross your fingers and wish my stuff luck anyway!

Jun 11, 2013 By tokyojinja in Expat Life, Furniture, Interior Design, Porcelain and Pottery Tags: armoire, blue and white porcelain, glass bottles, imari, inban, Japanese glass floats, Kutani, moving, packing, Seto, transfer printing, transferware, vintage glass

Some Green Transferware (Inban That Is) For Christmas

Of course the photo I want is sitting in a “to be scanned” pile back in Tokyo, while I am sitting in a relatively warm and sunny Florida, so I’ll have to settle for the dining room of Mari Ann and Michael Maher’s Llewellyn Park home, but I wish I could have the kitchen too. Their house, featured in the July 2007 Elle Decor remains my touchstone of the perfect family home, and I have shown the living room here before. I wish the Elle Decor online photos were as complete as the magazine – they lack the exterior in addition to the kitchen and perhaps a few others. The house is beautifully historical, gorgeously but comfortably furnished, with a feeling that every space is used and used well. I can think of no better spot than this dining room for Christmas dinner. But what I really want to focus on is that collection of transferware straight back in the cabinet against the wall. I know the photo of the kitchen has some hanging on the walls too, so it may be irresistible to add it when I get back to Tokyo after the New Year.

English Staffordshire dishes, routinely called transferware, have been on my mind a lot lately. To basically quote myself, “transfer printing was invented in England in 1756 and developed as an inexpensive way to recreate the characteristics of the hand painted underglaze blue ceramics of China and Japan. Ironically, transfer printing does not become popular in Japan until the late 19th century, but modern-day markets abound with transfer printed pieces that show it eventually did.” These Japanese transfer printed pieces, referred to as inban, are one of the absolute bargains to be found at almost any shrine sale or antique show.

English transferware was predominantly blue and white, but red, brown, black, yellow, purple and green were also made, particularly for export as well as much brown in the later 19th century aesthetic pieces.

In Japan, 90% of the printed inban is blue and white, and easily mixed and matched. I often push clients towards them as an alternative to the modern inexpensive dishes found at those large discount outlets. But much rarer than the blue and white, thus making them more fun to collect, are the green and white pieces, perfect for Christmas dining tables right now, but also for everyday use. Already having an extensive lavender and white English transferware collection, carefully brought with me to Japan, I have forced myself to limit my green and white collection to photos only, but find it increasingly hard not to buy. So for a little holiday season cheer, I’ll share my collection and let you all imagine how you might have added these items to your tables, hutches, cabinets or displays.

I think I’ll start with this one, just because the pattern reminds me of a snowflake and seems that much more seasonal.

Butterflies are pretty and a bit special.

Casual chrysanthemum laid over a karakusa background.

A little sho-chiku-bai (pine-bamboo-plum), our classic three friends of winter.

Sakura, or cherry blossom is common…

…as you can see, along with its sister ume (plum). Confused about bai and ume being the same thing? They are the same kanji, just different readings. Remember me mentioning I needed to work on my kanji – that is why I don’t make any progress!

There is a bit of every pattern hidden in these plates. And be sure to remember this bird and flower motif for the very end of the post.

You could think of these as tiny little Christmas trees.

I know there has to be a full story behind this plate – Chinese zodiac maybe? – but I am too lazy to look closely at it right now.

Some basho (banana leaves) in a star-like shape and goldfish swimming in the river.

When you consider how influenced late 19th century English transferware was by Japanese design, it is fun to think about mixing the two! Look closely at the border of the Cashmere pattern platter below from Merlin Antiques and compare the small stylized patterns to those in the Japanese pieces above. Then compare the bird and floral images with those in the plates a few photos above…

Happy Holidays to all!!!!

Image credits: 1. Elle Decor July 2007, photo credit: William Abranowicz, 2-3 Martha Stewart Living November 1995, last photo via Merlin Antiques, all additional photos by me.

Dec 24, 2011 By tokyojinja in Antique Shows, Color, Porcelain and Pottery, Shrine Sales and Flea Markets Tags: inban, Llewellyn Park, Martha Stewart, Michael Maher, Staffordshire, transfer printing, transferware

Shop Talk…A Great Eye at Les Yeux Noirs

As a follow-up to yesterday’s post on antiquing in Nishi-Ogikubo, I wanted to devote a little more airtime to a wonderful shop, selling mainly porcelain, called Les Yeux Noirs. Owner Haruko Hasegawa has assembled one of the prettiest and most cohesive collections of antique Japanese porcelain that I have seen. She seems to buy and stock nothing ordinary – everything felt special and unusual, whether it was the motif, the shape or the pattern.

One of the things I really liked about the shop was the diversity of styles and periods and therefore prices. While she had her very valuable Edo period karakusa (Chinese winding grass or arabesque) pattern pieces locked in a cabinet, she also had the largest most diverse collection of inban (transfer printed porcelain) I have come across. As mentioned earlier, mass-produced transfer printing did not become popular in Japan until the Meiji period, even though it had been produced extensively in the West for more than 100 years prior. In transfer printing, a pre-made image is inked with dye and then pressed against a blank surface. The dye is “transferred” (thus the name) and the item is then fired in the kiln. There is none of the hand-painting that you find on all the other types of antique porcelain. But the transfer prints have their own distinct charm and a following. At shrine sales you can often see piles of these small round plates, in a few basic patterns. Hasegawa-san had an extraordinary display with great depth and variety. They are great fun to collect – often being more affordable that other porcelain – and wonderful to mix and match.

Take a close look at this scenic, almost map-like plate and the charming momiji (maple leaf) patterned covered bowls. Both are fairly rare shapes for transfer printed pieces.

We had great fun arranging pieces into groups, perhaps for wall display. Looking closely you’ll see everything from wisteria to peach to our good friends sho-chiku-bai (pine, bamboo, plum). Quite a few of these patterns were new to me.

On the opposite side of the shop prices went up, with gorgeous pieces of Imari, like these giant display plates. Don’t let the small photos fool you – they are enormous – and would be a real focus in any room. There were also lots of hard to find small hibachi – great for little planters.

There is also a branch of Les Yeux Noirs in the lovely mountain town of Karuizawa. That shop is open from April 20 – May 25 and again from July 20 – November 25. What is currently unclear to me is whether or not that means the Nishi-Ogikubo shop is closed during that period. I’ll update that here as soon as I have an answer.

The most difficult part about traveling to Les Yeux Noirs is that they are open tokidoki (sometimes) from roughly 12 p.m. until 6:30 p.m. It might be best to call ahead. But well worth the effort!

Les Yeux Noirs, 4-1-22 Nishi Ogikubo: telephone 03-3395-5509
Les Yeux Noirs, Karuizawa: telephone 0267-42-1534

For more on antiques in Nishi-Ogikubo see Shop Talk…Discovering Antique Treasures in Nishi-Ogikubo.

Jan 25, 2011 By tokyojinja in Porcelain and Pottery, Shop Talk Tags: imari, inban, japanese antiques, Nishi-Ogikubo, porcelain, transfer printing

Sho-Chiku-Bai…The Three Friends of Winter: Pine, Bamboo and Plum

Sho-Chiku-Bai. If that name doesn’t sound Japanese to you, then you have a good ear, as it is actually the Chinese reading of the Kanji characters 松竹梅. In Japanese, they are read matsu (pine), take (bamboo) and ume (plum) and they form a threesome as one of the most popular decorative motifs the “Three Friends of Winter,” representing promise and good fortune. Together, they stand for the scholarly ideals of pure spirit (plum), longevity (pine) and flexibility (bamboo).

One of the most common places to find them is on Japanese porcelain, often in a very stylized form, so that you might not even notice they are there. This old Imari pattern is extremely common and at first glance there is no real sign of any botanical motifs.

When you look closely at the design in the round, the two trunks of the pine and the plum and the bamboo pole become visible. This central motif has been repeated on versions of this pattern for centuries and continues to be very collectible.

I’d say about a third of the traditional polychrome Imari patterns with a central roundel have our three friends in the center. Close-ups of the photos highlight the details and the difference between the blue underglaze and the enamel and gold overglaze.

So similar to the one above, yet oh so different!

Notice the different manner of painting the pine on this dish – the spiky needle style instead of the puffy bush style.

The Three Friends of Winter are also a common motif on Japanese transfer printed blue and white porcelain. Transfer printing was invented in England in 1756 and is commonly associated with the Staffordshire potteries and the classic “Blue Willow” pattern. This process was developed as an inexpensive way to recreate the characteristics of the hand painted underglaze blue ceramics of China and Japan. Ironically, transfer printing does not become popular in Japan until the late 19th century, but modern-day markets abound with transfer printed pieces that show it eventually did. Often very inexpensive, they are a great purchase as they have more character than modern blue and white. Patterns are often standardized (like this stylized Sho-Chiku-Bai dish) so collecting a particular one is easy – or they are fun to mix and match.

This small covered dish is also transfer printed, with the plum and bamboo encased in fans (a common design device) and the pine in snow, represented by the ruffled circle surrounding it.

This small dish has a naturalistic rendering.

The Three Friend of Winter are not limited to porcelain. They can be found on lacquer…

…and here is a set of three kashigata (sweets molds) in the motif.

This paste-resist dyed indigo cloth takes a different approach, blending the naturalistic pine and plum with the stylized kamon for bamboo. The process is called tsutsugaki (literally, tube drawing) as rice paste is squeezed from a tube to draw the design, much like a giant crayon. The cloth is subsequently dyed and then the rice paste is washed off. This antique futon cover dates to the late 19th century.

Same for this one.

A more formal version can be found on this brocade fukusa. Popularized in the Edo period, a fukusa was used to “wrap” a formal or important gift by being draped over the box or tray on which it was presented. The Three Friends are a very common motif on fukusa as they represent such good wishes to the recipient as well as the New Year.

Speaking of important gifts, how about this set of watches from Vacheron Constantin? They have paired up with Zohiko, a 300+ year old lacquer maker in Kyoto to create these limited edition maki-e (literally, sprinkled picture) timepieces, embellished with Sho-Chiku-Bai. I am not sure what you do with three and at $335,000 for the set, I don’t think I’ll be getting them anytime soon. But interesting, desu ne (isn’t it)?

All of these example came from the Antique Jamboree held at Tokyo Big Sight the weekend of January 8-9th. And for more on the symbolism of these three friends, see Kadomatsu…A Traditional Welcome for the New Year.

Image credits: All images by Jacqueline Wein except Blue Willow platter: marks4antiques.com, and Vacheron Constantin watches: via House of Pens

Jan 18, 2011 By tokyojinja in Antique Shows, Design Motif, Lacquer, Porcelain and Pottery, Textiles Tags: antiques, bamboo, fukusa, imari, japanese antiques, matsu take ume, pine plum bamboo, porcelain, sho-chiku-bai, textiles, Three Friends of Winter, transfer printing, tsutsugaki, Vacheron Constantin