SIGNED RYUKI, MEIJI PERIOD (CIRCA 1900)

Details

A Fine Okimono [Ornament]
Signed Ryuki, Meiji Period (Circa 1900)
Of bronze with variegated patination and gilt details, cast and chiselled in the form of stylised bronze waves among which swim two naturalistically modelled kingyo [ornamental goldfish], signed in engraved characters under the waves at one end Ryuki saku [made by Ryuki]
19 1/8 x 5 3/16in. (48.5 x 13.1cm.)

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Lot Essay

This fine okimono is virtually identical in size and design to one in the Khalili Collection,1 the only significant difference being that the Khalili piece includes elements in shakudo, shibuichi and silver; a similar but slightly larger group, with five fish instead of two, was exhibited in the Paris Exposition of 1900. It is interesting that the Khalili okimono was signed by Oshima Joun (1858-1940) while this example bears the signature of a completely different artist or dealer, Nogami Ryuki of Tokyo, who showed bronze flower-vases and okimono with tortoise motifs at Paris and also exhibited at St. Louis in 19042

1 Oliver Impey and Malcolm Fairley (eds.), The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art (London, 1995), vol. II, part 2, cat. no. 102

2 Tokyo Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyujo [Tokyo National Research Institution of Cultural Properties], Meijiki bankoku hakurankai bijutsuhin shuppin mokuroku [Catalogs of objects exhibited at international expositions in the Meiji period] (Tokyo, 1997), Q 103, 131, 134; R 416; T 921

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