A RARE 19TH CENTURY JAPANESE MEIJI PERIOD CLOISONNE ENAMEL S...

Hammer

£120

A RARE 19TH CENTURY JAPANESE MEIJI PERIOD CLOISONNE ENAMEL SCENT BOTTLE AND STOPPER in the manner of Namikawa Yasuyuki, the flattened bottle decorated with birds and dragons upon a black ground. 6 cm x 4 cm. Note: A former samurai, Namikawa Yasuyuki started work as an artist around 1868, working for the Kyoto Cloisonné Company from 1871 to 1874 and eventually forming his own company. He gave tours of his workshop; one visitor was the English writer Rudyard Kipling. These tours began in a garden to introduce Japanese aesthetics, and Namikawa would show the many stages of his production process, including fourteen polishing stones of different roughness that were used in sequence.
Along with Namikawa S?suke, he was one of only two cloisonné artists ever to be appointed Imperial Household Artist.[9] These artists were given a yearly stipend and were commissioned by the Imperial family to make presentation wares as gifts for foreign dignitaries.[10] After the Meiji era, foreign demand for Japanese art tailed off.[8] Namikawa Yasuyuki retired in 1919[6] and his workshop closed in 1923.[8]