SIGNED MIYAO, MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY)

細節

A PAIR OF BRONZE FIGURES
Signed Miyao, Meiji Period (Late 19th Century)
Patinated dark brown and other colours and with extensive gilding, each a boy in archaic Chinese-style dress, one seated in a coat and head-dress worked with peony, chrysanthemum and butterfly designs and blowing a long detachable trumpet decorated with a dragon's head, the other dancing, wearing a Tang-style helmet and surcoat and holding a jingle in each hand, each on a hardwood stand, its sides decorated with archaic animal and floral motifs, each signed on a gilt plaque on the coat Miyao sei [made by Miyao]
15 7/8 and 11¾in. (40.4cm. and 29.8cm.) high with stands (2)

注意事項

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品專文

Although most often associated with large-scale bronze figures of samurai,¹ the Miyao company also manufactured or dealt in a wide range of craft goods including Shibayama-work panels and ivory figures. Apparently based first in Yokohama and then, after about 1890, in Nihonbashi-ku, Tokyo, the company is first recorded at the Second Naikoku Kangyo Hakurankai [National Industrial Exposition] where Miyao Eisuke collaborated with the bronzecaster Momose Sozaemon in the production of a bronze figure of seven drunken shojo.² The appearance of their work is rich and detailed but they avoided using inlay, instead relying on gilding to achieve their effects.

1 Joe Earle, Splendors of Meiji: Treasures of Imperial Japan, Masterpieces from the Khalili Collection (St. Petersburg, Florida, Broughton International Publications, 1999), pp. 95, 112-4.

2 Tokyo Kokuritsu Bunkazai Kenkyujo [Tokyo National Research Institution of Cultural Properties], Naikoku kangyo hakurankai bijutsuhin shuppin mokuroku [Catalogs of objects exhibited at the National Industrial Expositions] (Tokyo, Chuokoron Bijutsu Shuppan, 1996), II 1163-4, 1176; IIIb 412, 632-3.