Edo period (1615-1868), with reticulated silver cover with auspicious Buddhist swastika motif, this incense burner (koro) is slightly square in shape, a Japanese tea bowl style, over a short foot and covered in a tin glaze hand painted in blue with popular Asian motifs horses and bamboo, having an axe symbol to underside. Purchased in Tokyo, Japan during the 1950s.



4 x 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.

Private Collection, New York and North Carolina

The Japanese could only obtain these Delft and other European wares at Nagasaki from the Dutch traders. Any products that were purchased or given from the Dutch at that time were known as oranda (Holland). This particular piece is not a European ceramic shape, incense burners with reticulated covers were primarily a ware in Asian countries. This koro would have been specially ordered from the Dutch merchants and then the silver cover produced to fit in Japan.

Silver cover is tarnished.