Bonhams 1793 : A shibuichi, silver filigree and cloisonné enamel octagonal koro (incense burner) and cover By Hiratsuka Mohei (born c.1836), Meiji Period

Bonhams magazines

My Bonhams

Advanced search

Click here to see more images.

6 Nov 2012 14:30 GMT London, New Bond Street
Fine Japanese Art Afternoon Session
Back to auction 20023

A shibuichi, silver filigree and cloisonné enamel octagonal koro (incense burner) and cover

By Hiratsuka Mohei (born c.1836), Meiji Period
The squat octagonal body supported on eight elaborately-banded scrolled feet, the sides inset with eight square panels decorated with gold-wire translucent enamels details, each panel depicting a coiled dragon, paulownia, ho-o, and a stylised semi-chrysanthemum, reserved on a turquoise-green ground, enamelled with formal floral motifs, between bands of similarly applied enamelled stylised flowers, with inner silver liner, the reticulated cover surmounted with a finial in the form of a vase containing four stylised leafy stems; signed on a gold seal Hiratsuka, the base bearing the original Tomkinson collection label.
11.5cm (4½in) high. (2).

Sold for £27,500 inc. premium

Footnotes

龍鳳凰菊桐文七宝銀香炉　平塚茂兵衛作　明治時代

Provenance: the Michael Tomkinson collection, no.210, illustrated by Michael Tomkinson, A Japanese Collection, vol.II, p.71.

For two similar examples of a metal koro and cover by Hiratsuka Mohei, see Oliver Impey and Malcolm Fairley (ed.), Meiji no Takara, Treasures of Imperial Japan, Metalwork part I, nos.61 and 62, in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection, and for two more examples of a similar koro and cover, see the Sano Museum (ed.), Kindai Shippo no Hana, Meiji no Shippo, p.98, nos.144 and 145.

The artist is recorded by Wakayama Takeshi, Kinko Jiten (A Dictionary of Metalworkers), Token Shunju Shinbun-sha, Tokyo, 1999, p.1261, where he is said to have made a tsuba with enamel decoration using an alternative name Seireishi.

He is also recorded in Nagoya-shi Hakubutsukan Kenkyu Hokoku III, Meijiki Hakurankai Shuppin Shippoko Soran (A Comprehensive Study of Cloisonné enamels), p.93, and is recorded as an exhibitor at the first and fourth National Industrial Exhibition, and as a winner of the ryumon (second) prize for a silver plate worked in gold wire and transparent enamel under Ozeki Sadajiro in the first exhibition.