A fine cloisonné enamel and partial plique-à-jour square bowl
By Ando Jubei, Meiji Period
The interior decorated with a single carp worked in gold wire, swimming at the centre on a pale blue ground, the entire rim delicately worked in silver wire and totai-jippo with a band of bearded purple, blue and white irises, between jade-green borders simulating bamboo, above a contrasting aoi-fuji ground; applied with silver mounts, the base signed with the silver wire seal of Ando Jubei and stamped jungin (real silver); with separate, en-suite wood stand and original, cushioned wood storage box. 9.5cm x 19.1cm x 19.1cm (3¾in x 7½in x 7½in), the wood stand 7.5cm x 13.6cm (3in x 5 3/8in). (3).
The interior decorated with a single carp worked in gold wire, swimming at the centre on a pale blue ground, the entire rim delicately worked in silver wire and totai-jippo with a band of bearded purple, blue and white irises, between jade-green borders simulating bamboo, above a contrasting aoi-fuji ground; applied with silver mounts, the base signed with the silver wire seal of Ando Jubei and stamped jungin (real silver); with separate, en-suite wood stand and original, cushioned wood storage box. 9.5cm x 19.1cm x 19.1cm (3¾in x 7½in x 7½in), the wood stand 7.5cm x 13.6cm (3in x 5 3/8in). (3).
Sold for
£145,250
inc. premium
Footnotes
- 菖蒲に鯉図七宝鉢 附 木製透台 安藤重兵衛作 明治時代
The bowl is extraordinary for the interplay of its colours and its subtle uses of traditional design; the rim decorated with a band of irises made in partial plique-à-jour (totai), in shades of green and hues of violet and blue, sets off perfectly the blue depth of the bowl's interior and the exterior.
Compare with a remarkably similar bowl, decorated with two bees in the centre bordered by a band of plique-à-jour grapes, leaves and fruits in shades of green and purple and blue hues, executed in the same exceedingly difficult technique, made by Gonda Hirosuke for the Ando Company, illustrated by Lawrence A. Coben and Dorothy C. Ferster, Japanese Cloisonné: History, Technique, and Appreciation, 1982, p.104, colour plate no.126.
Ando Jubei is traditionally said to have brought back to Japan, from the World Fair in Paris 1900, a piece of plique-à-jour enamel by Fernand Thesmar (1843-1912) from which Kawade Shibataro is said to have been able to discover the methods of manufacture. However, the recent discovery of a vase by Namikawa Sosuke, made in the same technique, in the Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, and exhibited in Chicago in 1893, has cast considerable doubt on this belief.
Plique-à-jour is made by the removal of the metal body after firing so that the enamel and the wires support themselves. The breakage rate was very high and consequently many pieces were originally sold with small cracks. This extant example in perfect condition is therefore a superb testimony to the perfectionism of its maker.
Category: Asian Art / Japanese Art
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