A large, handbuilt terracotta bowl or tank, decorated with white slip and sgraffito, based on 19th century Japanese Satsuma ware. The interior depicts oriental ladies with musical instruments, manuscripts and tea in traditional kimono, the patterns inspired by textile designs from a favourite book, Grote Meesters der Japanese Prentkunst, a Dutch catalogue of 18th century Japanese colour plates. The outer bowl features gentle line drawings of lemon verbena, together with classic fan motifs and stylised pussy willow blossom.

This 1690 interpretation of Satsuma ware is glazed with washy colours in faded iron-red and orange, mossy greens and soft blacks; the typical glitzy gilded overglaze is replaced by organic mid-greens, as though the lustre were seen through a lens. Each bowl follows the same design in terms of surface decoration and palette, with subtle variations in pattern and use of colour.