Masters of Enamel: The Collection of John and Muriel Okladek | Including Further Japanese Works of Art from the Meiji Period, 1868-1912
Masters of Enamel: The Collection of John and Muriel Okladek | Including Further Japanese Works of Art from the Meiji Period, 1868-1912
The Property of a Gentleman
A fine pair of bronze vases | Signed Kako (Suzuki Chokichi, 1848-1919) with mark Kiyru kosho kaisha (made by the first Japanese manufacturing and trading company) beneath the "double-mountain" mark of the company | Meiji period, late 19th century
Lot Closed
November 3, 03:59 PM GMT
Estimate
12,000 - 18,000 GBP
Lot Details
Description
The Property of a Gentleman
A fine pair of bronze vases
Signed Kako (Suzuki Chokichi, 1848-1919) with mark Kiyru kosho kaisha (made by the first Japanese manufacturing and trading company) beneath the "double-mountain" mark of the company
Meiji period, late 19th century
the oviform vases with short necks and everted rims, inlaid, chased and carved in various coloured and patinated inlays including silver, shibuichi and copper, on a richly patinated ground with fans, flowers and autumnal foliage continuing on to the reverse, the bases with archaic designs, silver rims
(2)
Each 32.5 cm, 12¾ in. high
Suzuki Chokichi (1848-1919) was one of the leading and original members of the Kuritsu Kosho Kaisha, a company set up by the Japanese Government to promote export in crafts after the exhibition in Vienna in 1973. Suzuki Chokichi had grown up in Tokyo, served a five year apprenticeship before setting up in business on his own at the young age of seventeen. He was at the heart of the national project to redirect Japanese traditional industries towards the export market and exhibited at Philadelphia (1876) and Paris (1878). As a well known name in his field he was commissioned by various agencies of the Japanese government to create work for public display and was appointed an Artist to the Imperial Household (Teishitsu Gigeiin) in 1896. Suzuki Chokichi exhibited the famous twelve bronze hawks, considered by many as amongst the finest examples of the Meiji period art in existence, now in the collection of The National Museum of Modern Art Tokyo, at the 1893 Chicago exposition.
For a similar pair of bronze vases, see The Beauty of Edo and Meiji: Aesthetics of Doctor Bealz, (Osaka, 2008), cat. 95.