Kouemon & Pauline Deltour
An especially impressive production technique, unique to Arita, inspired Pauline Deltour’s tea set collection. The Kouemon pottery is able to mass-produce vessels which are very thick on the bottom yet have a fine, thin edge. This process requires great skill, a long firing time and special clay. Attempting it would normally result in cracked and broken pieces.
Almost every bowl in traditional Japanese tableware has a foot observed Deltour. So this common element was retained in her collection, giving the tea set both identity and visual coherence and stability. Deltour further studied the typologies of cups and dishes used in daily life in both Asian and European food culture to find the right balance between shape and proportion, capacity and handling for her collection. The traditional glaze colours found in traditional Japanese porcelain; dark blue, brick red and celadon green were appropriated by Deltour and used in a fresh manner.
