JAPAN
Imari ware, is either relegated to a secondary rank in Nabeshima porcelain or does not appear at all. The specimens sent to Europe by the Dutch traders in the early days seem to have been principally, if not altogether, of the latter class; that is to say, their decoration consisted entirely of enamels over the glaze. Differing essentially from the familiar "Old Japan," this porcelain greatly perplexed European amateurs of later times. M. du Sartel's description of the ware, as known to Western collectors, and of the confused ideas prevailing about it, is interesting. "These porcelains," he writes, "remarkable for their fine ivory-white pâte, always soberly decorated with paintings executed in colours, the ensemble of which, blue under the glaze being absolutely excepted, is identical with what one finds on choice products of the Hizen factories, have been variously judged by the keramists whose attention they have attracted. If we may credit some connoisseurs, they are almost as ancient as the first porcelains that made their appearance in China, and while certain persons still attribute them to Japan, others think that they are due to Korean keramics, although no other ware of similar nature is recognised as belonging to Korea. It would necessarily result from the latter view that the Korean potters limited themselves to this solitary and unique variety, made no one can tell where, at an epoch not determined, and exported by unknown hands in an unascertained manner. … This variety, the cause of so much controversy, is tolerably rare to-day. It is usually found only in incomplete specimens of little importance, often garnished with ancient mountings, of which some, in silver gilt, bear witness to the value set on the ware of the last century.
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