Three Kutani Shunga Sake Cups with Hidden Pictures, Landscapes and Calligraphy, in a Paulownia Box
Three Kutani Shunga Sake Cups with Hidden Pictures, Landscapes and Calligraphy, in a Paulownia Box
- 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 $42, 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 7.7 of 10 ·
- Replies
- Within one Tokyo business day · Ask the curator team
- Guarantee
- Authenticity guaranteed · How we grade
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
Very Good
- Giftable
- Mint
- Excellent
- Very Good
- Good
- Honest Wear
- As Found
Three Cups, Three Secrets
One cup shows only blue and white flowers outside and a pair of lovers within; two others hold misty mountain landscapes in the well, while outside a beauty kneels by a lattice window beside lines of flowing verse, and the intimate scene waits around the far side.
Best for: Collectors of Kutani porcelain, sake ware and hidden shunga objects
Condition notes
Some surface soiling from age; no chips or cracks, as described. Enamels and gilt rims well kept. Paulownia box with compartments and cord.
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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Three small porcelain sake cups described as Kutani, each keeping a secret: lovers, landscapes, verse and a beauty at a lattice window, kept in a paulownia box tied with purple cord.
This piece belongs to the private room of the house and is shown to adults only.
The Piece
The set was described as newly brought out of an old family house, and it is a set made to be turned in the hand. The first cup is plain blue and white outside, with loose underglaze flowers, yet its well holds a pair of lovers in a robe of lilac maple leaves and green and gold. The surprise is the whole point.
The two companion cups reverse the joke. Their wells are painted with misty mountain landscapes of pines, a hillside temple and a small boat, the most respectable of subjects. Outside, a beauty kneels beside a lattice window, and lines of verse in flowing script run around the body; only as the cup turns does the intimate scene come into view. Such cups belong to the higa, the hidden picture, one of the wittiest branches of the erotic arts.
Each cup sits in its own compartment of the paulownia box.
Details
- Ware: Porcelain, described as Kutani
- Form: Three sake cups in a compartmented paulownia box
- Decoration: Overglaze enamels and gilt rims; one cup with underglaze blue
- Sizes: About 4.7 cm (1.9 in) across; 2.3 cm and 3.0 cm (0.9 and 1.2 in) high
- Box: Paulownia wood with purple cord
Measured by hand; please allow a gentle margin of about 0.3 cm (0.1 in).
Condition
- Some surface soiling from age.
- No chips or cracks, as described.
Condition grade B (very good) on the Japanese scale; see Japanese condition ranks, explained.
Authenticity & Care
Offered as Kutani porcelain as described; undated and unsigned, and no maker is claimed. Wash by hand only.
Delivery from Japan
Each cup is wrapped separately and the box double boxed, then shipped 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 arts and antiques.
Concierge
Searching for other higa cups? 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: higa sake cup set · Kutani shunga guinomi · hidden picture sake cups
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