Antique Demitasse Nippon Moriage Porcelain Cup & Saucer Nippon Pre 1891 Unsigned

Description

Antique Demitasse Nippon Moriage Porcelain Cup & Saucer Nippon Pre 1891 Unsigned.
Being unmarked, this piece would be from before 1891, probably from the 1880s. The cup and saucer is hand decorated and painted in pastel greens, pinks, yellows and blues, stunning use of color. Center have beautiful hand painted floral decorations. The elaborate and extensive Moriage decoration encompasses nearly the entire cup and saucer Please see photos.
Nippon Moriage and beaded Nippon are terms used to describe the slip decorated or beaded pieces of Nippon porcelain. Many pieces of Moriage or beaded ware are unmarked as they have no stamp. Typically these pieces are very fragile. This piece is an exceptionally fine example in beautiful condition. Please carefully review our images to be satisfied, before you consider bidding.
Moriage refers to raised slip decorations applied to a piece of porcelain or pottery. Slip is the special thick liquid clay from which porcelain and pottery is made. There are several types of applied slip decorations. Slip trailing is where a pattern is drawn or transferred into a porcelain or pottery base and the slip is applied by hand in layers. This is similar to a baker applying frosting when decorating a cake. Liquid slip is poured into a shallow pattern mold and allowed to partially dry. The formed decoration is then removed from the mold and attached to the base of the piece with a bit of slip to act as glue. A third technique where a thin flat slab of clay is allowed to set up partially, is hand rolled and/or carved by the artist into a decoration, and is applied to the moist body of the ware. A fourth process is where pieces that have no applied decorations made from a mold incorporate a raised design. I believe that the first three processes were used on this cup and saucer This piece also extensively used a technique of beading, where hundreds of small dots of clay slip are applied to a piece of porcelain which is then fired and painted, a very time-consuming process.