Lot 1. An earthenware vessel with sculptural rim, Late Jomon period (5th-3rd century BC). Estimate $30,000 - $40,000. Price Realized $35,000. Photo Christie's Image Ltd 2016.

Of low-fired reddish clay with black fire marks, the body decorated with scrolling cord pattern, the rim with sculptural handle-like ornament and further cord pattern; 9 in. (22.8 cm.) wide

The result of Oxford Authentication Ltd. thermo luminescence test no N116b94 is consistent with the dating of this lot.

Provenance: Private collection, Koyada, Aizu City, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, acquired in 1930s

Note: Based on the most recent scientific research, it is believed that the manufacturing of the Jomon vessels started around 15,000 BC. For over ten thousand years, the potters made jomon (rope-decorated) vessels. An early obsession with surface decoration, much of it made by rolling a piece of rope across the soft clay surface, turned in time into an amazing array of sculptural additions to the hand-built body of the pot.
For other earthenware vessels from Jomon period in the Avery Brundage Collection at the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, see Yoshiko Kakudo, ed., The Art of Japan, Masterworks in the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco (San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 1991), pl. 3 and 4.

Christie's. AN INQUIRING MIND: AMERICAN COLLECTING OF JAPANESE AND KOREAN ART, 15 April 2016, New York, Rockefeller Plaza