Potpourri bowl with cover (one of a pair). Culture: Japanese with French mounts. Dimensions: H. 15 1/8 x W. 16 1/4 x D. 10 1/4 in. (38.4 x 41.3 x 26.0 cm). Date: porcelain late 17th century, mounts ca. 1745-50.Japanese porcelains with French mounts from the mid-eighteenth century are less common than mounted Chinese porcelains of the same period. Porcelains from Japan were sometimes chosen for mounting in silver in the first part of the century, but it seems that within several decades Chinese porcelains embellished with gilt bronze became the preferred choice of European collectors. Not only are surviving examples of mounted Chinese porcelains more numerous than their Japanese counterparts but the former appear with greater frequency in eighteenthcentury auction catalogues and inventories.These covered porcelain bowls were produced at Arita, in southwestern Japan, in the late seventeenth century. Their decoration displaying highly stylized vegetation and rock work is in the Kakiemon