Suzannah Yip
Department Director
Lot 401
An inlaid silver and shakudo pear-shaped vase
By Yamada Motonobu (1847-1897) for the Ozeki Company, Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th century
11 May 2017, 12:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £56,250 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Japanese Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
An inlaid silver and shakudo pear-shaped vase
By Yamada Motonobu (1847-1897) for the Ozeki Company, Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th century
The cast shakudo body chiselled and modelled in high relief of gold, silver, copper and shibuichi with five doves, three standing among pine needles, pine cones, ginkgo and maple leaves scattered around their feet, two in flight among other leafy sprays drifting to the ground, the top of the silver neck partially pierced and carved in low relief with chrysanthemum blossoms, maple leaves and ginkgo leaves enclosed within two gold-outlined lappet-shaped panels and decorated in flat inlay of gold, silver and copper in a range of different patinations with chrysanthemum sprays, the body signed on one side with chiselled characters Bokusuihen, Inshi koku (Carved by Inshi on the Sumida River) with a gold seal-mark Motonobu and signed on the base with a gold-wire seal Ozeki sei (made by Ozeki). 29.5cm (11 9/16in) high.
The cast shakudo body chiselled and modelled in high relief of gold, silver, copper and shibuichi with five doves, three standing among pine needles, pine cones, ginkgo and maple leaves scattered around their feet, two in flight among other leafy sprays drifting to the ground, the top of the silver neck partially pierced and carved in low relief with chrysanthemum blossoms, maple leaves and ginkgo leaves enclosed within two gold-outlined lappet-shaped panels and decorated in flat inlay of gold, silver and copper in a range of different patinations with chrysanthemum sprays, the body signed on one side with chiselled characters Bokusuihen, Inshi koku (Carved by Inshi on the Sumida River) with a gold seal-mark Motonobu and signed on the base with a gold-wire seal Ozeki sei (made by Ozeki). 29.5cm (11 9/16in) high.
Footnotes
Provenance: an English private collection, bequeathed to the present owner by her father who acquired the vase just after World War II.
One of the finest metalworkers of the later nineteenth century, Yamada Motonobu came from a family of artists who had originally served the branch of the Tokugawa family that ruled the Mito domain, some 70 miles to the northeast of Edo/Tokyo. He started his training in metal carving at age 13 in 1864 and is recorded as working for the Imperial Household in 1877 (see Sekai o odorokaseta Bakumatsu, Meiji no kinko (Late-Edo-Period and Meiji-Era Metalwork That Astonished the World), Rokusho, 62, Tokyo, Maria Shobo, March 2007, p.89). After the prohibition of the wearing of swords in 1876, companies such as Ozeki encouraged Motonobu and other sword-fitting makers to apply their dazzling skills to the manufacture of ornaments and accessories directed mainly at the overseas market.