Wow! Gorgeous vintage Japanese 19th century Sometsuke-Seiji round cobalt blue and celadon porcelain plate with on sale scalloped edges

on sale A plea to our wonderful customers: when you order more than one item, please purchase them one at a time. Otherwise Etsy gets confused about the shipping labels. Thank you!

I, and my brothers and sister, were born and raised in Japan during the 1950s and 1960s; our parents were missionaries. During that time we and our mother collected many unique Japanese antiques. I often accompanied my mother on her “antiquing” trips. There was a certain kind of pottery that enchanted me; it was very hard to find, so I grabbed it whenever I saw it. I later found that it was called Sometsuke-Seiji porcelain. Sometsuke refers to the underglaze and overglaze blues, and Seiji is the word for the celadon glaze component. This decorative technique was originally created by Imari, Arita craftsmen during the period from 1720 through 1750. This technique is unique to Japan; unlike Chinese and Korean celadon pieces the sublime celadon color was created to give a “fresh” look to the traditional blue sometsuke designs.

This smaller Sometsuke-Seiji plate or dish is a particularly fine example of 19th century Imari porcelain, with vibrant colors. The two small spots on the edges are called “hittsuke” marks; they are not considered a fault in Japan, and in fact they are celebrated. This “flaw” was created by the plate getting stuck to something else in the kin so that the celadon glaze did not spread completely to the edge.

6 x 2 inches