UNSIGNED, MEIJI PERIOD (CIRCA 1900)

Details

A Superb Plique-à-Jour Enamel Bowl
Unsigned, Meiji Period (Circa 1900)
The translucent enamels worked in silver wire with a variety of show chrysanthemums, resting on a tsuiki jippo [translucent enamels over stippled silver] footring with three integral feet each pierced with a bird motif, applied with a gilt metal rim, the area within the base left unpolished Plique-à-Jour, in which the supporting metal is removed with acid after firing to leave the glass and the wire alone,
7½in. (18.5cm.) diam, 3 3/8in. (8.5cm.) high

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Although the inveterate innovator Namikawa Sosuke (1847-1910) is thought to have developed plique-à- jour in the early 1890s, it was probably not until after 1900 that it became possible to produce pieces on this scale, since it is almost impossible to avoid some small cracks during the cooling process. The motif of ostentatious spider and other cultivated chrysanthemums was especially popular in cloisonné enamels towards the end of the Meiji period.1

1 Joe Earle, Splendors of Imperial Japan, Masterpieces of the Meiji Period from the Khalili Collection (London, 2002), cat. nos. 226, 230, 231, 234 and 235

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