SIGNED JOUN, MID-MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY)

Details

A FINELY CAST BRONZE KORO [INCENSE-BURNER]
Signed Joun, Mid-Meiji Period (Late 19th Century)
With very dark green-brown patination, the circular base supporting four dragon-head feet on which the container rests, the container with a narrow base, the sides sloping out to a very wide shoulder, the shoulder with two upstanding handles in Chinese style, the domed lid surmounted by a handle in the form of Jurojin reading a book and accompanied by his crane, the entire surface very finely cast with keyfret pattern and other low-relief ornament inspired by early Chinese bronzes, the shoulder with archaistic roundels of fabulous beasts, other parts of the surface with lappet and dragon motifs, signed underneath the container Ichijoken Joun with a kao
18 7/8in. (48cm.) high

Special notice

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Lot Essay

The finely cast surface decoration of this bronze perpetuates the bronze style established at the beginning of the nineteenth century by Murata Seimin (1761-1837) and carried on by a number of his students. The wide range of pieces signed Joun has led some scholars to suggest that they must represent more than one maker, but this artist is almost certainly the one praised by the British metallurgist William Gowland in 1895.1

1 Joe Earle, Flower Bronzes of Japan (London, 1995), p. 110

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