206. Andrew Sartorius, Firebox Sculpture 21, “Triumvirate 2”

206. Andrew Sartorius, Firebox Sculpture 21, “Triumvirate 2”

For Sartorius, see item 143.

This was the first in a series of three small sculptures.

West Virginia wild clay, wood-fired, then reglazed with a Shino glaze and refired in a cone 11 soda firing. Colors range from a grayish blue through mahoganies. Weight: 282 g (10 oz). Height: 6.3 cm (2-1/2 in). Dimensions: base 5.3 x 6 x 7 x 5.7 cm (2-1/8 x 2-3/8 x 2-3/4 x 2-1/4 in); top 3.8 x 5.7 x 5.1 x 4.4 cm (1-1/2 x 2-1/4 x 2 x 1-3/4 in).

This sits on a flat base. Remnants of the four posts used to keep this from fusing to the kiln surface are visible on the bottom. Each side is a quadrilateral; except at the base, where the walls meet the base in sharp line, the edges are slightly rounded. The line where the edges meet also bow outward slightly. The top slopes downward slightly viewed from the front (arbitrarily the view shown in the first picture). The opening is located in the upper portion of the top. The surface of this is smooth and glossy. The artist’s mark was impressed into the clay in the lower left-hand corner of one side. The subsequent firings and glazing obscured it somewhat (see the fourth picture).

This was wood-fired in the back of anagama kiln and naturally glazed over a four-day period with fine ash particles. It was then reglazed with a “very thin” coating of a Shino glaze and refired in a cone 11 soda firing, leaving the surface with a smooth shiny glaze and imparting a variety of colors in the blue and cream range.  The colors are quite mottled and dynamic.

Multo in parvo

Purchased from the artist in January 2023.

 

205. Andrew Sartorius, Firebox Sculpture no. 16, “Calico"

205. Andrew Sartorius, Firebox Sculpture no. 16, “Calico,” 2022

For Sartorius, see item 143.

West Virginia wild clay, with a slip made from North Carolina wild clay; with a Shino glaze on the upper portions with enough carbon capture to turn some areas a light gray-blue; the wood-firing created colors in the gray to black range and red to mahogany range. The interior was glazed with Shino. Weight: 1010 g (2.3 lb), Height: 17 cm (6-3/4 in). Width: 10.2 cm (4 in). Length 13.3 cm (5-1/4 in).  

This sits on a flat base, roughly triangular in shape, 12.5 x 11.3 x 10.1 cm (5 x 4-1/2 x 4 in). There are remnants of four posts used to keep the pot from fusing to the shelf on which it said during firing, which were roughly filled in later with a bit of clay. The pot is a truncated pyramid. Besides the base, the pot has three sides and a top. The front side (the one with the opening) rises in a convex arc to about three-quarters of the height before bending forward. The opening is 3.7 cm (1.5 in) wide and sits in the center of the convex arc. The right side (looking from the front) of the pot begins as a circular concave depression on the bottom half and then squares off into a long rectangle with a slight convex arc. On the bottom left of this side is a small triangular area. The artist’s mark is stamped next to the base within this area. The left side is a quadrilateral, slightly convex in shape that first bend to the left and then back to the right. The top is an inclined triangle with curved sides tilting forward, 8.2 x 5.7 x 8.8 cm (3-1/4 x 2-1/4 x 3-1/2 in). The areas coated with the Shino glaze and with the melted ash glaze are smooth to the touch. The unglazed areas are rougher.

This was wood-fired in the upper front of an anagama kiln for four days. A Shino glaze was applied to the upper parts of the pot and to the interior. The glaze on the exterior absorbed enough carbon to turn a gray-blue color; in some areas the Shino glaze turned red. The interior glaze shows the red and white colors associated with Shina. The fire was also hot enough that the glaze exhibits crackling. The wood-firing also was hot enough that there was some ash melt, along with coloring in the gray-black and red-mahogany-brown ranges.

A superior piece, showing Sartorius’ control over the interactions between shape and firing. The Shino glaze adds a new depth to this series of pieces.

Purchased from the artist in January 2023.

204. SEN Sōsa VI, 1675­-1730), chawan (teabowl)

204. SEN Sōsa (千宗左) VI, religious names: Gensō Sōsa  原叟宗左  and  Kakkakusai   覚々斎, 1675­-1730, chawan (teabowl)

Gensō  Sōsa, the son of Hisada Sōei, was the sixth head of the Omotesenke (表千家) school of tea ceremony. He was an amateur potter. He served Tokugawa Yoshimune  (1684-1751), the eighth Tokugawa shogun, who ruled from 1716 until his abdication in 1745.

Gray sandy clay from Shigaraki. The interior and the upper parts of the exterior walls have a thick black glaze. The remainder of the exterior is unglazed. Weight: 1178 g (2.6 lb). Height: 8.8 cm (3-1/2 in). Diameter: rim, 10.4 cm (4-1/8 in). maximum, 13.2 cm (5-1/4 in); base, 11.3 cm (4-1/2 in).

This was shaped by hand. It sits on a very shallow foot ring, less than 0.3 cm (1/16 in) high; the shape is an irregular circle roughly 3.8 cm (1-1/2 in) in diameter. A shallow ring was hollowed out, leaving the center level with the edges of the ring. The ring sits in the center of the flat base. There are two inscriptions on the base (see below). Above the base the walls rise in a convex arc to the rim. The walls were flattened using a bamboo spatula and randomly gouged and pitted. There is a long, deep crack in one side—perhaps the result of the clay drying unevenly and splitting open. The rim is rounded and very irregular both in shape and height. The thick layer of glaze on the interior created a smoother surface, but it is still bumpy.

This was given a coating of thick black glaze on the interior and rim, with some flow down the exterior side. The rest of the exterior was left unglazed and exposed to the ash and heat flow from the wood-firing. The exterior is also much weathered.

There are two inscriptions on the base of the bowl. The first, enclosed in a rectangular cartouche reads  不二コ fujiko, which I take to mean something like “unmatched,” “nonpareil,” “nonesuch,” “nothing like it.” These characters for “fuji” are also occasionally used for Mount Fuji; if that is the intent here, the name would mean “child of Mount Fuji.” I regard this as less likely, since nothing in the shape or decoration of the bowl suggests Mount Fuji. (Later: I ran across a sake cup with a black and white color scheme--in that instance with the white around the rim and the black lower--with 不二山 Fujisan, "Mount Fuji" written on the box as the name of the cup.) The other inscription was written in a quite good hand and reads 信楽砂土造 Shigaraki shato zō, or “made from sandy clay from Shigaraki.”  Shigaraki is a long-standing potting site in Shiga prefecture, next to Lake Biwa, east of Kyoto.

This came in a box without an inscription. 

The seller attributed this to Gensō Sōsa.

Regardless of the authenticity of the ascription to Gensō Sōsa, it is a splendid piece firmly within the aesthetic of Japanese pottery. It is clearly “unmatched” (and unmatchable). It is blunt; its finesse lies in its bluntness and the intentional crudity of the modeling. It bears witness to the artist’s handling of it. It is very heavy for a teabowl and so large that I wonder if it wouldn’t be difficult to drink from.

Purchased from Treasures of Oldtimes in Bangkok, December 2022.

 

203. Ko-Oribe kōgō (incense container)

203. Ko-Oribe kōgō  香合 (incense container for Japanese tea ceremony)

Brown clay. Glazed in Oribe green, cream, and brown; base and neighboring portions of wall and the edges where the top and bottom halves meet were left unglazed.  Weight: (entire) 94 g (3.4 oz); (lid) 46 g; (bottom) 48 g. Height: (entire) 4.4 cm (1-3/4 in); (lid) 2.8 cm (1-1/8 in); (bottom) 2.3 cm (7/8 in). Width: 5.5 cm (2-3/16 in).

This sits on a round base 2.5 cm (1 in) in diameter. There is no foot ring per se, but the inside of the base has been hollowed out to a shallow depth.  Above the base the walls rise at about a 30-degree angle to the full width about 0.6 cm (1/4 in) above the base. From there the walls rise in more or less a straight line to a height of 3.2 cm (1-1/4 in). They then curve inward toward the center to a height of 3.8 cm (1-1/2 in). A topknot of a coiled, ribbed cordlike string of clay sits in the center of the lid. It’s too small to serve as a knob to lift the lid. The sides of the box form a square with rounded corners (or alternatively, a circle has been squared off to make straight sides.  Both the lid and the bottom have a horizontal groove running around the circumference, roughly in the middle of each part. The upper surface of the lid has another groove about 0.6 cm (1/4 in) in from the sides to make a slightly raised portion. The walls are about 0.3 (1/8 in) thick. The interior of the box mirrors the exterior. The bottom has a flange on the inner side of the top edge that fits snugly inside the lid. The surface is bumpy.

The topknot was glazed in Oribe green. The exterior and interior walls (with the exceptions noted above) were glazed in cream. On the front of the box is a vaguely plant-like design in brown. The cream glaze on the exterior has darkened due to aging.

The seller dated this to the seventeenth/eighteenth centuries and labeled it as Shino ware. The box this came in has no inscription.

Purchased from Treasures of Old Times in Bangkok, November 2022.

202. Andrew Sartorius, Firebox Sculpture no. 13, “Skin Changer”

202. Andrew Sartorius, Firebox Sculpture no. 13, “Skin Changer”

For Sartorius, see item 143. 

Wild West Virginia clay, wood-fired, with colors in the gray to black range and a dark reddish brown. Weight: 874 g (1.9 lb). Height: 8.8 cm (3-1/2 in). Length: 18 cm (7-1/8 in). Width: 9.5 cm (3-3/4 in).

This sits on a flat oval-shaped base 7.6 x 4.8 cm (3 x 1-7/8 in), roughly in the center of the bottom. The bottom sides curves upwards to the two end sides. The artist’s mark was impressed into the clay to one side of the flat base. Each side of the sculpture is contoured in many different directions. Some of the sides meet at sharp edges; other move smoothly into each other. The opening is roughly triangular and sits on a separate, small, four-sided plane of the sculpture.  The surface of this is rough and pitted from the ash deposits during the wood-firing.

This was fired toward the back of an anagama kiln for four days. According to a note from Sartorius: “I thought the quieter presence of ash and larger surface area of West Virginia clay color would really suit the piece and I am thrilled with the finished product.”

This is a spectacular piece. The contours are amazing, as are the effects wrought by the contrasts in how the various surfaces meet. The firing added subtle gradations of color and impact from the heat and ash flows.

Purchased from the artist in November 2022.