A very rare pair of Japanese Arita porcelain trumpet vases, with wide flaring mouths. They are decorated on the outside with a dense pattern of scrolling peony flowers and foliage in a bright underglaze blue. On the neck are four upright lappet-shaped panels, which would have been left unglazed during firing. Then the panels have been embellished with striking gold urushi lacquer on a papier-mâché underground, surrounded with a black border. Two panels have a swastika lattice pattern in relief, the other two have a raised granulated surface. On the two granulated panels, a porcelain handle in the shape of an elephant head was added. The most striking part of these vases is the large gold lacquered wire cage around the body, containing two porcelain pheasants – one black with white the other white with light brown. They stand on a rockery, against a gilt lacquer background painted with trees. The top of the cage has a cloud collar in gold lacquer outlined with a black border. On the inside rim are two dragons in underglaze blue, writhing amongst clouds chasing a flaming pearl. The base has a white transparent glaze and has no spur marks.
The birdcage vases would have been considered very extravagant and luxurious oriental wares, which were exported to Europe in the early eighteenth century. A large group of 20 of these vases were purchased by Augustus II the Strong - Elector of Saxony and king of Poland (1670-1733), for his display in the Japanese Palais in Dresden (1729-1737). The palace was re-designed to house his extravagant collection of 28,000 of oriental porcelain on the ground floor and his own Meissen porcelain on the first floor. Sadly the project was not finished in his lifetime, but designs and inventories of 1721 attest to the grand plans. Considering the Japanese policy on foreign trade, these Japanese birdcage vases could only have been imported by the Dutch East-India Company (VOC) and traded from the Netherlands. Fifty replica birdcage vases were commissioned from the Meissen Manufactory around 1730. However, it would seem that Meissen Manufactory was unable to fulfil this order and only supplied a very limited number of these objects.
Adding a layer of papier-mâché and lacquer to a porcelain surface, made the decoration on the vases very unstable and fragile; therefore many of the extant vases have lost some (or all) their original lacquer. Other parts, such as the birds, have also sometimes been lost or broken. It is thought that originally the elephant handles may have been made in Arita, but many of the extant vases have Meissen handles or no handles at all. The Ashmolean Museum has a vase with no lacquer or cage, so the original ‘naked’ structure can be clearly seen.
We currently know of 23 birdcage vases, nine of which are in the current Royal Porcelain Collection in Dresden. Château de Pau has three in its collection, which were confiscated during the revolution from the Princes de Condé. The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has two, the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford has one, as does the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem. A Japanese Private collection – exhibited in the Kyushu Museum, Arita - is slightly smaller than the other extant vases. Four vases from the Dresden Collection were restituted to the deposed Wettin family and are now in a private collection. These vases rarely come onto the market, so it is extremely unusual to find a pair.
