A PEACH-FORM PORCELAIN BOX AND COVER

Nanki Otokoyama ware, Kii Province, Japan

Nineteenth century, after 1827

A porcelain box and cover modelled as a peach, shaded in underglaze blue beneath a bluish-white glaze, with a brown-glazed stem and an applied curling leaf. The interior is painted with flowering and fruiting branches in underglaze blue and coloured enamels. Inside the cover is the four-character mark 南紀男山 (Nanki Otokoyama), painted in underglaze blue.

Its softly modelled body and bluish-white glaze recall Korean Joseon ceramics, suggesting the influence of Korean ceramic traditions on its design. Established in 1827 with the support of the Kii domain, the Nanki Otokoyama kiln produced porcelain in present-day Wakayama Prefecture until 1878.

A related peach-shaped covered vessel in the Wakayama Prefectural Museum bears the same mark inside its cover. The peach symbolises longevity and immortality through its association with Xiwangmu, the Queen Mother of the West.