SIGNED KOMAI, MEIJI PERIOD (CIRCA 1890)

Details

A Pair of Good Komai Vases
Signed Komai, Meiji Period (Circa 1890)
Of flattened baluster form, each with the body narrowing toward the top and then widening again towards a short vertical rim, supported on a footring which rests in turn on a base with a scalloped outline forming four bracket feet, the iron decorated in gold and silver overlay with standard geometric and floral designs, the neck and rim with stylised grapevine motifs, the footring with a repeating interlocking keyfret motif, each signed in gold characters in a panel on the side Kyoto no ju Komai sei [manufactured by Komai of Kyoto]
9in. (22.8cm.) high (2)

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Around 1873 Komai Otojiro started selling damascened ironwares in Kobe, a centre of foreign trade, and within a few years his chargers, plaques, cabinets, model pagodas, and vases were in such demand that he was prosperous enough to buy a large house. The name of Komai seldom appears, however, in the lists of artists for international or national exhibitions until 1903, presumably because a Kyoto dealer, Ikeda Seisuke, marketed most of their work. It was Ikeda, for example, who won a gold medal at the Paris Universal Exposition of 1900 for a plate of gold and silver which may well have come from the Komai workshop.

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