145. KATŌ Bakutai, 1861–1943, Seto-ware teabowl

145. KATŌ Bakutai  加藤麦袋,1861–1943, Seto-ware teabowl, with picture of horse and characters hatsugama 初窯, Shino glaze

Katō Bakutai was a prominent potter who initially worked under Katō Shuntai (1802-77). He was partially responsible for the revival of Seto-ware techniques in the nineteenth century. He worked with a variety of traditional pottery styles including Shino, Tenmoku, and Mishima.

Light brown clay, Shino glaze in pink and white, with characters and decoration in black; foot ring and surrounding area left unglazed. Weight: 238 g (8.5 oz). Rim and maximum diameter: 12.8 cm (5-1/16 in); foot ring diameter: 4.6 cm (1-13/16 in). Height: 6.3 cm (2-1/2 in).

This sits on the base of the foot ring, which is 0.6 cm (1/4 in) high on the outside. The interior of the foot ring has been excavated out to slightly less than this height. The exterior walls extend outward at a slight upward angle (5­–10-degree slope) for 1 cm (3/8 in); The artist’s mark, a small oval with the incised characters for “Bakutai” 麦袋 was pressed into this area.  The walls then rise up and outward in a shallow convex curve to just about 1.3 cm (1/2 in) below the rim. Above this a concave groove encircles the bowl just below the rim. The lip of the rim has been forced outward slightly. The surface of the glazed portion of this is dotted with small pits, giving it a slightly rough texture.

The bowl was glazed in Shino. The interior and the central band of the exterior have a slight pinkish blush from the wood-firing. The exterior decoration was applied with a calligraphy brush. The characters, 初窯, indicate that the bowl was produced in the potter’s first firing of the year. A compound with the same pronunciation but with a different second character is used for the first tea ceremony of the year; so the characters may be doing double duty here. Since the horse is one of the animals in the Asian zodiacal cycle, I’m guessing this may have been made during a horse year. Given the artist’s life dates, the possibilities are 1894, 1906, 1918, 1930, and 1942.

The brushwork on the horse is impressively economical and resulted in a sprightly figure. The bowl is slightly smaller than most “summer” teabowls. The color range and placement show good control of the kiln during firing.

Purchased in August 2021 from Treasures of Old Times in Bangkok.

 

 

144. Andrew Sartorius, ash-glazed, twice-fired teabowl

144. Andrew Sartorius, ash-glazed, twice-fired teabowl made using wild clay

 

 

 

For Sartorius, see item 143.

Dark brown wild clay from West Virginia, colors from wood- and soda-firings. Weight: 546 g (1.2 lb). Rim diameter: 12 cm (4-3/4 in); maximum diameter: 12.6 cm (5 in); foot ring diameter: 6.3-7.0 cm (2-1/2 to 2-3/4 in). Height: 7.6 cm (3 in).

This was hand-built using coils of clay. It sits on the foot ring, which is an irregular oval in shape. The outside wall of the foot ring is 0.3 cm tall (1/8 in). The interior of the foot ring has been scooped out to a similar depth to leave a triangular pattern of ridges meeting in the center. Above the foot ring, the walls rise at about a thirty-degree slope to a height of about 1.2 cm (1/2 in) above the base, reaching the maximum diameter at this point. The artist’s mark, a small circular seal with his initials inside, was pressed just above the foot ring in this section of the pot. From there the walls rise in more or less a straight line to the rim. The exterior surface of the bowl is very irregular both from the modeling and the ash deposits from firing. The interior is smooth.

This was wood-fired near the front of an anagama kiln. It emerged from this kiln with a “sharp layer of unmelted ash.” Sartorius then fired the pot again in a gas kiln to cone 11, using soda during the firing, to help fuse the glaze. The result is a thick melted ash deposit with a bright sheen over about half the exterior surface. The interior appears to have been shielded from the effects of the soda firing. The result is a mottled surface with colors ranging from whites through dark yellows shading into browns and blacks, with variations in the degree of shininess.

Purchased from the artist in August 2021.

143. Andrew Sartorius, Shino-glazed, wood-fired platter

 143. Andrew Sartorius, Shino-glazed, wood-fired platter made from wild clay

 

 

Sartorius lives and works in the Hudson River Valley of New York. He was an English teacher in Japan and began his studies of pottery there. For other examples of his work, see his Instagram account @asartoriusceramics and his website andrewsartoriusceramics.com. At the 2022 American Crafts Council annual show (in Baltimore), Sartorius received the 2022 Award of Excellence for Emerging Artists.

Dark brown wild clay from West Virginia, Shino-glazed on the top and side surfaces, other colors from wood-firing. Weight: 936 g (2.1 lb). Dimensions: 20.2 to 20.8 cm (8 to 8-1/4 in) x 14.5 to 16.7 cm (5-3/4 to 6-5/8 in). Thickness of slab: 1.3 cm (1/2 in).

This is a rough quadrilateral with angled sides. The flat plate was curved slightly upward toward the edges so that the base on which it sits occupies a small area in the center. The artist’s stamp, a circular chop with his initials, was pressed into the bottom. The bottom is smooth, but the top is quite rough and uneven.

The top and sides have a Shino glaze. This was wood-fired for two days in a train kiln and cooled in a highly reduced atmosphere. The Shino glaze has some carbon capture, resulting in colors ranging from a light pink to a pinkish gray. The bottom surface was colored by the wood-firing. The natural clay color shows through in a narrow band at one end, but the rest of this surface is a dark reddish-brown.

Purchased from the artist in August 2021.