A HIRADO PORCELAIN FIGURE OF RAKAN HANDAKA SONJA WITH DRAGON Japan, 19^th century

The fine blue and white glazed figure, depicting the immortal Handaka Sonja dressed in a half-shouldered monastic robe, sitting on top of a rocky plinth, surrounded by crashing waves, holding a pearl in his left hand, with the dragon encircling the plinth and its mouth wide open.

HEIGHT 20.2 cm
WEIGHT 571 g

Condition: Good condition with usual traces of wear and age. The head of Handaka, his right arm and the horn of the dragon has been reattached.
Provenance: Holzapfel collection, Geneva, Switzerland. The greater part of the Holzapfel Oriental Ceramics collection was formed in England and Ireland in the late 1950s and 1960s. After the death of Mr. Holzapfel, most of his pieces went to his children, ten in all. Two of Mr. Holzapfel's eldest sons then started their own collections in the early 1970s, both by adding significantly to their shares of the inheritance. Collecting was eventually continued by one of Mr. Holzapfel’s grandsons, who lives in Switzerland and is a member of the Oriental Ceramic Society. This lot was acquired by Mr. Holzapfel before 1970 and has been in the Holzapfel family ever since.