If you are in contact with
fellow collectors there is the inevitability that a conversation will arise in
which an owned pot is discussed in relation to another pot either available or
just out in the ether. Owners tend to err on the side of ego and usually
profess their piece to be better than the other and the debates that can arise
if there is any hesitancy or disagreement can be quite heated. At times, the
owned pot is the better piece, at other times it is the similar piece that is
the superior piece. In some cases the decision is an easy one to make at other
points the qualities are just more subjective in their judgment than objective
but the real truth is as I am looking at two similar pots, whether I own it or
a fellow collector does, my real thought process is thinking if I could only
take the neck off this one and switch out the ash on the other I could have the
best of both. As a potter and collector, I would like to think I am a realist,
though I have a few nice pots and ones I am very happy with but if you compare them
against the best pots of the various potters, many come up a bit short. I think
it just boils down to human nature, especially for collectors who by their very
nature are operating with some psychological deficit (!), allowing the
subjective to rule the analytical process with the ability to be objective and clinical
a distant concept that is easier understood in theory than in practice.
Illustrated is an excellent
example of an Oni-Shino kinuta-hanaire by pioneer, Tsukigata Nahiko. This
particular pot, owned by a fellow collector is illustrated in a book on the
paintings and pottery of Tsukigata so I think it is safe to say that there is a
certain amount of agreement that this is a superior piece. I am not going to
say it is the best or that there could be better but let it suffice to say that
I think you would have to stumble upon quite a number of similar examples to
find a better one. In this instance when you compare and contrast this mallet
to others the answer is obvious.
"Each one sees what he
carries in his heart." Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
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