Medicine bottle with Baroque brass mounting

This medicine bottle was moulded in Arita after a European model. Its dominant decoration is divided into four cloud-shaped cartouches. Two opposing cartouches bear twigs of chrysanthemum with ribbon, while the other two depict a young couple and an old couple, a man and woman with a mirror. There are three-leaf perianths and foliage in between the cartouches. The neck bears a simple decoration of wild chrysanthemums. The decoration on the body and neck is split by geometric motifs. The brass base with scrollwork and latticework was added later in Europe in the second half of the 18th century. Such wares are rare in the Czech collections; they can only be found in the Schwarzenberg Collection and at Boskovice Chateau. The bottle housed in the National Gallery in Prague also comes from the Schwarzenberg Collection. (See Filip Suchomel – Marcela Suchomelová, Mistrovská díla japonského porcelánu, Praha 1997, p. 103.)