Japanese Ceramic Hakata-Style Ningyo Doll, Courtesan Art Statue in a Peony Kimono with Concealed Shunga Underside
Japanese Ceramic Hakata-Style Ningyo Doll, Courtesan Art Statue in a Peony Kimono with Concealed Shunga Underside
- Dispatch
- Prepared and sent from Tokyo within 7–14 days, often sooner, or as arranged
- Arrival
- United States · usually 4–7 days after dispatch, insured and tracked Check the Shipping Flowchart here
- Import
Duties and customs · View the estimate
A guide for this piece: about $65, based on the 10% US charge on the declared value of goods made in Japan.
The final figure is set by US Customs and depends on where the piece was made and the kind of object it is. Many antiques over a century old carry no ordinary duty; most jewellery and leather goods add a single-digit rate.
With EMS, any charge is collected by your postal service on delivery. For pieces of significant value we can often arrange duties prepaid before dispatch.
How the estimate is reached · Ask for a figure on this piece
- Character
- Ornate 7.4 of 10 ·
- Replies
- Within one Tokyo business day · Ask the curator team
- Guarantee
- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
| Figure | cm | in |
|---|---|---|
| Width | 21.0 cm | 8.3 in |
| Height | 11.0 cm | 4.3 in |
Every piece is measured by hand, in centimetres as Japan measures. Please allow 1–2 cm (about ½ inch) for the give of the material and the hand that held the tape.
Where each figure is taken · View the plate
Object, sculpture and ceramics
Condition report
Good
- Giftable
- Mint
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Honest Wear
- As Found
Composure Above, Wit Below
Seen upright she is all poise: a courtesan with a folded letter, her peony robes fanned about her. Turned over, she reveals the private joke of the piece, a moulded scene of lovers framed in purple and lilac, in the spirit of the laughing pictures of Edo.
Best for: Collectors of Hakata figures and concealed-scene erotic dolls
Condition notes
Scattered marks, surface dust and light dirt; the doll has not been cleaned. Light rubbing to the paint at raised edges of the robes and hair. No maker stamp; plain uninscribed wooden box.
Grades, ratings and commentary are given to the best of our ability, knowledge and experience, and condition remains partly a matter of personal perception. What we stand behind without qualification is authenticity, truthful description and provenance, to the best of our knowledge. How we grade
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All sales are final. Please read our refund policy before purchase.
Considered offers only. The Desk replies personally to figures made in good faith; those set far below the asking price receive no reply.
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A seated courtesan in a peony-strewn kimono, modelled in painted clay in the Hakata manner, who keeps a private scene of lovers beneath her robes.
This piece belongs to the private room of the house and is shown to adults only.
The Piece
Seen from the front she is a picture of composure: a courtesan of the pleasure quarters, seated with her robes spread in a wide fan, her hair dressed high with pink ornaments and her hands resting on a folded letter. The outer kimono is a coral ground scattered with white and crimson peonies; beneath it lie a pale celadon robe with roundels of irises, bellflowers and pinks, and a vermilion under-robe drawn with a hemp-leaf lattice. The face is finely painted, with a calm gaze and a touch of red at the lips.
Turn the figure over and the base becomes a second picture. Moulded in relief within a purple and lilac border lies an intimate scene of lovers on a quilt, the man in a green robe dotted with white. Dolls of this kind, made to stand composed in company and to be turned over in private, belong to the long Japanese taste for warai-e, the laughing pictures, in which wit and concealment count for as much as the subject.
No maker's stamp, label or certificate accompanies the doll, and its plain wooden box is uninscribed.
Details
- Subject: Seated courtesan, with a concealed scene of lovers on the underside
- Material: Fired clay, hand-painted
- Style: Hakata-style display doll (ningyo)
- Width: About 21 cm (8.3 in)
- Depth: About 13 cm (5.1 in)
- Height: About 11 cm (4.3 in)
- Maker: Not recorded
- Date: Undated
- Box: Plain wooden box, uninscribed
- Made in: Japan
Measured against a rule in photographs; please allow a gentle margin of about 1 cm (0.4 in).
Condition
- Scattered marks, surface dust and light dirt; the doll has not been cleaned.
- Light rubbing to the paint at raised edges of the robes and hair.
- The small white panels on two photographs of the underside were added for discretion and are not on the doll.
- Every photograph is part of the description.
Condition grade C (good) on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.
Authenticity & Care
Offered as a Hakata-style painted clay doll by an unrecorded maker; the link to the Hakata tradition rests on style alone and is not certified. Dust with a soft, dry brush and never wash painted clay. Lift from the base rather than the head or hair ornaments.
Delivery from Japan
The doll travels in its wooden box, wrapped in tissue and cushioned within a rigid carton, insured and tracked by EMS or an equivalent express service. Import duties and taxes, where applicable, are payable on arrival. Every sale is final; please ask anything you wish to know before you buy, and see our published policy.
Considered offers are welcome through Send an Offer, and each one is reviewed personally. Further pieces of the kind are kept in Shunga and Hidden Arts and among our Japanese dolls.
Concierge
Searching for a particular Hakata figure or a hidden-scene doll? Our Hunting Salon™ locates such pieces across Japan's private collector circles, then inspects, documents and delivers them to you. Begin a Hunting Salon™ request.
Collectors also search: Hakata shunga doll · concealed scene clay doll · Japanese courtesan ningyo
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