THE VERY FIRST

Illustrated is a 4-Vue collage of a very nice Tsukigata Nahiko chawan. This is one of those 'rare" pieces that is actually ours that I post as it seems like 98% of what is up on my blog either belongs to fellow collectors or was just passing by. What makes this pot unique is not the pot at all but that it was our very first Tsukigata Nahiko piece and that it was a gift from a very good friend who knowing my passion for the potter just went and sent it to us one day a number of years ago. As a collector, the gentleman who sent it to Mindy and I was also a passionate collector with a keen eye who put together a rather impressive collection which had a number of Ningen Kokuho potters as well as individuals like Hamada, Kawai, Rosanjin, Kato Tokuro and Arakawa Toyozo. Several years back he decided to get rid of his collection selling off some and donating the rest to the Nelson-Atkins in Kansas City and the San diego Museum of Art. Now back to the chawan which has a great form and foot with a soft, vellum like sheet of ash that wraps around the face of the bowl which than gives way to an area of rich, shimmery iron and active feldspar. The lip has a sensuous and continuous undulation that guides the eye around the bowl only to draw the viewer in to the super wet and glassy build up of once molten ash that coats the teapool as it runs down the sides, frozen in a moment when the stoking of the wood kiln stopped and the surface began to coalesce. I should say that despite the slightly different appearance of the ash face this is a classic Tsukigata chawan in every respect from form, surface, kodai and the fact that the violent and ferocious nature of its firing is written all over the surface; think MOBY DICK manifest in clay!