Nabeshima dishes

Five, pristine Nabeshima porcelain plates of exquisite quality and significance in a set.  Nabeshima porcelains were never sold but produced exclusively for presentation to nobility, including the Shogun and Emperor.  As Motosuke Imaizumi puts it in “Famous Ceramics of Japan No.1, Nabeshima” (Kodansha, 1981), “Today, Nabashima pieces are regarded as masterpieces of ceramic art, displaying the highest technical excellence, and are treasured by collectors throughout the world.”  These plates embody such standards in fine white porcelain, decorated in subtle pale and deep blue underglaze with delicately painted clusters of chrysanthemum buds, blossoms and leaves. The exterior echoes the leaves with unopened buds at the corners. The raised foot, 4” in diameter, is meticulously decorated in a Nabeshima hallmark: the storied comb-tooth pattern—precise, evenly-spaced blue strokes in unaided free-hand. According to The Kyushu Ceramics Museum’s 2006 publication “Nabeshima; Porcelain for the Sho