Just Curious

My cousin gave me this pot about ten-fifteen years ago. Forget the myth about glaze on inside of pot. I had a tree successfully potted in it for nine years, died of causes that had nothing to do with the pot.
When I got it, it had no drain holes, so I am curious about what it was intended for, also how old it is. I had two holes drilled by a tile company.
Forgot to include a ruler. It is about ten inches long, 25 cm.
I am very fond of it, especially since I am familiar with the Hokusai print. But it was carelessly made. At the final glazing, they even dropped some pieces of grout inside it. It is made of porcelain (as far as I can tell). There is no chop. The bottom is stamped MADE IN JAPAN. I assume it was mass produced for the export market, but I've never seen anything similar.
If anybody knows anything about this, I would appreciate it.

I have just seen on eBay one pot similar to yours:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Bonsai-Pot-Water-Garden-Bowl

In the description, they say it is a water gardening bowl.

Cheers,

Dear Iris

It is a beautiful porcelaine pot.
The decoration is so suttle, that can mostly only
be reached with porcelaine clay.
The deco is of a water reference , could be very possible
that it was intendet to be a bird drinking pot or mabey
to put water in with a beautiful flower ?

The glaze is a very good coloured celadon glaze.
The celadon is an old chinese glaze , bit mythical and
comes to full awareness on porcelaine.

Looking at the feet , Yes , think the pot is mass production.
Doesn´t mind , it is very high fired , porcelain and celadon recuires this.
Lovely pot with sensitive decoration and glaze !!
Kind regards
Morea

Ps, forgot to tell , the brownish-greenish drips inside the pot ?
they look very systhematic , more like `triangles`?
These are like small sticks of fireproof stone to be placed ,
to put another glazed pot on in the kiln to be fired and not melting together.
Production.... fill up the kiln as much and economical as possible.
Kind regards
Morea

Morea wrote: the brownish-greenish drips inside the pot ?
they look very systematic , more like `triangles`?
These are like small sticks of fireproof stone to be placed ,
to put another glazed pot on in the kiln to be fired and not melting together.

This occurred to me. But by doing so, they spoiled the finish on the inside.
What puzzles me is why they would make a high-fired porcelain container with an elaborate decoration on all four sides, and a fancy celadon glaze, and have the container with minor errors, like little glaze faults & a small chip off the bisque stage. I imagine it must have been made in some sort of cottage industry.
I doubt it was intended as a vase. It is the wrong shape. What would they do with it as a water container? It is too small for fish or a bird bath. Maybe at the time it was fashionable to grow potted water plants.
Anybody know?
Iris

Dear Iris,
this is a nice pot.
It is a water lily pot. These Pots are not rare, and they are produced for centuries. Your pot is from a large-pot production.
Here are two examples of older pots:
The pot 2
http://www.bonsaipots.net/index.php?page=mini-porcelain-8

And here it is the last small pot.
http://www.bonsaipots.net/index.php?page=eight-immortals

Best regards
Peter

Iris,

My understanding is that these pots are used for bulbs like Narcissus, grown in gravel and water rather than soil. It's sort of a common thing here in the south to "force" bulbs in a sunny window in the cold winter months. I have several of these pots and that's what I do with them.

Forgot something. The wide, shallow ones are good for floating camellia flowers too - but I guess that really is a southern thing! Much better than a vase anyway.

Russell

Thanks. I can imagine it being used to grow a water plant in a city house where they didn't have room for a pond. The American market would have used it for forcing bulbs, but my cousin just stored it in her basement. I wonder how old it is. Before WWII?
As a bonsai pot, I think it wants a flowering tree or something from the water's edge like a willow. Instead of starting with a tree & looking for the right pot, I have this pot & I need to keep an eye out for the right tree.

Hi,

bonsaisr wrote:The American market would have used it for forcing bulbs, but my cousin just stored it in her basement.

It seems that forcing bulbs is an old Chinese tradition too - from Vaughn Banting's site http://www.vlbanting.com/bulbpotcollection.htm

During the Chinese Song and Yuan Dynasties and later during the Qing Dynasty bulb bowls (or bulb pots) were used as containers for flower bulbs, such as narcissus. Narcissus blooms were particularly popular around the time of the lunar New Year (late January - February) when the Chinese celebrate the coming of spring.

Best regards,
Stefan