The Japanese potter Sakaida Kakiemon I is credited with perfecting the method of using overglaze enamel decoration on porcelain, known as ‘Akae’. The Kakiemon kiln, in the Japanese town of Arita on the southern island of Kyushu, was founded in around 1670 and specialised in the production of wares such as this teapot, that were typically decorated with a yellow, red, blue and turquoise palette set against a milky-white ground. After the fall of the Chinese Ming dynasty in 1644, Dutch traders began to import Kakiemon porcelain to Europe where it became extremely fashionable. This eventually led to the imitation of Kakiemon patterns onto cheaper white porcelain produced in Europe, namely at the Chantilly, Chelsea and Meissen porcelain manufactories. This teapot was formerly in the collection of the Princes Oettingen-Wallerstein, Southern Germany.
