A red melange ground with a large peony and two four-clawed dragons chasing the flaming pearl amidst cloud formations and phoenix-birds.
From the Collection of Johan Almqvist (1940-2024). Johan spent his early years in various countries and learned many languages thanks to his father, Karl Fredrik Almqvist (1906-1982), who was a Swedish diplomat. Johan had a passion for art and travel early on. In the early 1960s, as one of his first jobs as a free-lance journalist, he traveled to the Middle East where his interest in Persian ceramics and collecting started.
He then came to be based in Japan, still as a free-lance journalist for all the major Scandinavian Newspapers as well as Springer (Die Welt and Zeitung), Swedish Television, Svensk Radio and Radio Luxembourg. He covered a large part of Asia, including The Philippines, Korea, and Vietnam.
1974 he was hired by Beijer Invest to be based in Japan.