I
got a rather excited email the other day from a guy I have known for years, he
doesn't collect pottery, rather he is interested in kodogu, sword fittings and
metalwork. He very proudly told me he had found a rather remarkable chawan and
since he was on the road, he had mailed it to me as a gift and I should have it
in just a few days. A man of his word, the package arrived two days latter and
was in a good size parcel so there was no tip off to what was to come. As I
unpacked the piece, it was double boxed and I began to get a bit nervous as it
was beginning to feel like I was dealing with one of those Matryoshka doll sets
with ever layer revealed, the packing got smaller and smaller until I was
holding the illustrated chawan. Now in fairness, the individual that sent it is
not a Japanese pottery collector so there needs to be a bit of lattitude in regards
to the pot he sent which turned out to be a rather small wood box with a
guinomi residing within. Though as I unpacked the package that was sent my initial feeling that
I had choosen door number three on Let's Make A Deal faded as I opened the wood
box and took out the rather wonderful Iga guinomi any of that disappointment
faded away. As one can guess, it can be a bit dangerous to let the mind wander as it is easy to have
such unreasonable expectations as to be let down no matter the outcome but I
can say in this instance, once opened I couldn't have asked for a finer little
pot from a rather thoughtful collector.
"We love to expect, and
when expectation is either disappointed or gratified, we want to be again expecting."
Samuel Johnson
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