5.5x4.5x2 Inch Biko Mokka Bonsai Pot #544 – Hand Carved Medallion, Mokka Orange, Chop & Nail Signed

Turn a Horie Biko pot over and the first thing collectors look for is the crane: a small raised medallion, folded like an origami crane, carved and applied directly to the clay. This one carries six. A single medallion is common on his work, and two or three already puts a pot in a different tier, because the more medallions Biko worked into a piece the more important he is understood to have considered it. Six sits well beyond that.

The mokka form suits the decision. Mokka takes its outline from the quince fruit, a soft multi-lobed silhouette rather than a straight-sided one, so the medallions sit on a wall that is already curving. The colour is Biko doing exactly what he was known for. Where most potters treat a bold orange as an accent, he laid it on solid and confident. Underneath there is a chop and a nail signature: the chop a pressed seal repeated across the kiln's output, the nail signature scratched into the clay by hand while it was still leather-hard.

At 5.5 by 4.5 inches and 2 inches deep this is shohin scale, which is where most of Biko's work lives. The shallow depth suits a tree whose roots are already developed rather than one still building mass, and a colour this saturated answers foliage instead of receding behind it, the conventional pairing for deciduous and flowering species. With six medallions to find, the pot rewards being turned.