Miniature Teapot
Artist
Kinkozan Studio (Japanese)
Date
circa 1895Medium
glazed earthenware, enamelDimensions
Work : 2 1/2 x 3 x 2 1/4 in. (6.35 x 7.62 x 5.72 cm)Credit Line
Gift of Jeffery and Juli Adelman, selected from the Ghosn Family Art Collection and Worldbridge Art, IncObject Number
2013.6.4.A-B
Label
During the Meiji period, ceramics and chemistry became closely intertwined as potters sought to develop new, more scientifically-grounded recipes for glazes and enamel decoration. Some potters even obtained examples of popular Chinese and European ceramics and reverse-engineered them to replicate their effects. This teapot made by the Kinkozan pottery studio in Kyoto features a translucent navy-blue ground glaze and a brilliant gold over-glaze enamel, both of which were based on recipes originally developed by the Meissen factory in Germany. Knowledge of the German glaze and enamel recipes may have been acquired by Japanese potters who made a study tour of European ceramic factories after the Vienna World’s Fair in 1873, or they may have been developed with the help of Gottfried Wagener, a German chemist who lived in Japan and was friends with Kobayashi Sobei, head of the Kinkozan studio.
