A Hirado porcelain blue-and-white okimono of a shishi and a modern porcelain moonflask


Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th/early 20th centuryThe first a model of a shishi seated on its haunches with both its forepaws resting on a reticulated brocade ball, its mane and tail highlighted in underglaze blue, 10.2cm x 19.1cm (4in x 7½in); the second painted in underglaze blue with a kingfisher perched on stems of reeds, the reverse inscribed with a poem and dated kinoe-inu (1934), signed on the base in underglaze blue Enmei; 27.4cm (10¾in). (2).
|The moonflask appears to be a near-direct copy of an original by Chinese artist Wang Bu (1898-1968), described and illustrated in The Hong Kong Museum of Art, Brush and Clay: Chinese Porcelain of the Early 20th Century, exhibition catalogue, Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1990, pp.314-315, cat. no.88.