Kakiemon style vase; MEISSEN, Germany, c. 1890.

Kakiemon style vase; MEISSEN, Germany, c. 1890.
Enameled porcelain over glaze and 800 silver mounts.
It has slight losses in the glaze.
It has stamp on the base and punches "Carl Schnauffer", Dresden.
Measurements: 36,5 x 16,5 x 16,5 cm.
This work is part of the long tradition of western reinterpretation of oriental models, particularly Japanese, whose influence deeply transformed the European decorative arts since the 17th century. The reception of these porcelains in Europe was particularly intense in the Germanic sphere. From the beginning of the 18th century, the Meissen manufactory, founded in 1710 under the patronage of Augustus II the Strong, developed a systematic interest in reproducing the oriental porcelains imported by Dutch trading companies. This vase, however, responds to a different context from that of the first eighteenth-century imitations. During the 19th century, and particularly under the influence of European Historicism and Japonisme, Meissen recovered numerous models from the past, reinterpreting them for a bourgeois and collector market increasingly interested in historical decorative arts.
The so-called Kakiemon style originated in Japan, specifically in the porcelain workshops of Arita, on the island of Kyūshū, during the Edo period. Associated with the Sakaida Kakiemon family of ceramists, this ornamental language is characterized by the extraordinary whiteness of the paste, the compositional asymmetry and the delicacy of the decorative motifs, generally executed in polychrome glazes of red, green, yellow and soft blue tones. Unlike the Chinese ornamental exuberance of the green family or Imari porcelain, the Kakiemon style favored ample empty spaces and a refined visual economy, features that fascinated European courts and collectors.