2. Large Seto-ware platter, with Horse’s Eye pattern

2. Large Seto-ware platter, with Horse’s Eye pattern 

 

Coarse gray stoneware. Top surface and most of sides glazed; undercoat is cream colored; the color of the design varies from brown to black depending on the thickness of the glaze; there is a streak of white over two of the brown “eyes.” Weight: 2.09 kg (4-2/3 lb). Diameter of rim: 33 cm (12-7/8 in); diameter of foot ring: 15 cm (6 in). Height: 7 cm (2-5/8 in). Three characters were written in ink on the base . Six scars from the wads used to separate pieces during firing are visible on the top surface.

Seto City is a pottery-making center in Aichi prefecture in central Japan. Seto-ware (Setoyaki 瀬藤焼), which is classed as a “folk pottery,” has been made there since the thirteenth century. Seto is known for a brown iron glaze, which is probably the one used here on the rim and for the decoration. The decorative pattern on this dish is known as “Horse’s Eye” (Uma no me 馬の目).  This pattern was popular as a decoration on large platters from the late eighteenth through the nineteenth centuries, although this particular example is most likely a modern one. The characters on the base probably are the signature of the potter. The central one ヨis the katakana symbol for the syllable “yo”; the bottom one 一 is for the character for the number 1 and is pronounced “ichi.” “Yoichi” is a not uncommon given name for a man. The top symbol is not a character; since it looks like Mount Fuji, it may indicate that the potter’s name has the element Fuji or Yama (mountain) in it. Purchased at the Japan Trade Center in San Francisco, sometime in the late 1970s or early 1980s. At that time there were two shops in that complex selling high-quality Japanese pottery. Most of it was imported, but occasionally items from the estates of older generations of Japanese-Americans were available.

1. Marguerite Rost, large platter

1. Marguerite Rost, large platter 

 

 

Rost (1912-2004) was a potter in Palo Alto, California. In a letter to the September 1968 issue of Ceramic Art Network, she mentioned that she had been making pottery for only a few years.

Light tan clay. Top and sides are glazed; colors are mottled browns, grays, and creams, with an almost calligraphic design in dark brown and blue. Weight: 2.785 kg (6.2 lbs). Diameter of rim: 34.5 cm (13-5/8 in); diameter of footring: 24 cm (9-1/2 in). Height: 5.5 cm (2-1/8 in). Signed on base with incised  “Rost.”

This was my first purchase of art pottery. For some reason I saved the receipt for this. I bought this on November 25, 1970, at the Los Robles Gallery on Ramona Street in downtown Palo Alto. At the time I didn’t anticipate that I would continue to collect pottery and didn’t keep good records of my purchases. I paid $15.00 for this; it was marked down because it was a second (there is a small chip on the rim. To put that in context, $15 was a week’s worth of groceries for one person at the time.