A Patinated-Metal Table Screen

MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY), WITH SIGNATURES SOEN TETSUYOSHI, GILT SEAL MASAYOSHI; ESSAI MASAYOSHI, GILT SEAL TETSU; GILT SEAL ON UNDERSIDE OF BASE OZEKI SEI

Details

A Patinated-Metal Table Screen
Meiji Period (Late 19th Century), with Signatures Soen Tetsuyoshi, Gilt Seal Masayoshi; Essai Masayoshi, Gilt Seal Tetsu; Gilt Seal on Underside of Base Ozeki Sei
Designed as a table-sized standing screen (tsuitate) with rectangular panel fitted into a silver support cast with two carp leaping from waves which is set into a shakudo base worked with flowers and butterflies and gilt edges, and bearing on the underside the gilded seal of the Ozeki Company, Tokyo and Yokohama; the rectangular panel bronze designed with a pine tree and the inlaid figures of Gama Sennin and Tekkai Sennin, variously patinated in copper, shakudo, shibuichi, silver and gilt, details of the pine, branches, vines and lichen gilt and the trunk with traces of shakudo; the opposite side of the panel designed with a carp leaping a waterfall under a cherry tree, the entwined vines, blossoms and leaves of soft-metal and gilt, the fin and scales of the carp shakudo, the waterfall given an iridescent mirror-polish and the inlaid foam, surrounding bamboo leaves and lichen gilt; the raised border of the panels shakudo with copper butterflies and chrysanthemum scroll, echoed in larger scale on the base
9½in. (24.4cm.) high; 6¼in. (16.8cm.) wide

Lot Essay

For an incense burner dated 1896-97 signed Essai and sealed Masayoshi, names of the metalworker Oyano Masayoshi, see Oliver Impey and Malcolm Fairley, Metalwork Part I, vol. II of Meiji no Takara, Treasures of Imperial Japan (London: Kibo Foundation, 1995), pl. 54. For a table screen with a similar shakudo base sealed Ozeki see the same volume, pl. 55 and Joe Earle, Splendors of Meiji, Treasures of Imperial Japan, Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection (St. Petersburg, Fla.: Broughton International, Inc., 1999), pl. 63. For this and other Ozeki pieces see also Victor Harris, Japanese Imperial Craftsmen, Meiji Art from the Khalili Collection (London: British Museum Press, 1994), pls. 15-19.

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