Although the teapot here is stored in a separate box from the five cups, these six pieces may once have been part of a tea set that included other tools such as a water cooler. The teacups have orchid flowers on both sides in underglaze blue, as well as a blue band inside the footring. The teapot has the same design and a blue band painted around the bottom of the lid’s knob. The cups’ long wood storage box is stamped on the exterior, over the lid and base, with a small red seal reading “Satō.” The same seal appears on five small squares of yellow textile, one placed in the bottom of each compartment in the teacup storage box. These are additional to the customary yellow cloths stamped with a “Seifu” seal. Interestingly, four of the Seifū cloths are stamped with an ovoid seal, while the remaining cloth, which is a slightly lighter color, has an unusual seal that is not quite gourd-shaped and with the fū of Seifū in a stylized, unrecognizable form. The teapot has its own box with a Satō seal and is wrapped with an orange textile stamped with the same unusual Seifū seal. A set with a very similar surface design is in the Brooklyn Museum. The Brooklyn set has a water cooler and a small pitcher, in addition to the teapot and cups, and all are in a single storage box.
View the original at Cleveland Museum of Art →Article 1 states the purpose plainly: prevent trade in stolen goods, find them quickly, and speed the recovery of victims. Article 2 then defines a used article to include, in the same breath, art objects held for appreciation. Dealing in them requires a licence.
The cool part. Article 16 requires a dealer to record every transaction: the date, the item and quantity, its distinguishing features, and the address, name, occupation and age of the other party. Article 15 requires that a dealer who suspects an item is stolen report it to a police officer immediately. So the antique trade runs on a register the police may read, and a painting becomes a second-hand article the moment it has been used once.
Verify at e-Gov 法令検索 →Use it Take the ratio, not the picture. It sets a page better than a grid does.
Description source: museum curator text — not generated