Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Ashmolean − Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period

A catalogue of the Ashmolean’s Japanese decorative arts from the Meiji period (1868-1912), by Oliver Impey and Joyce Seaman (published Oxford, 2005).

Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period 1868-1912 by Oliver Impey and Joyce Seaman

Publications online: 54 objects

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Circular jarlet with flowers and butterflies

  • Literature notes

    Circular, almost spherical jarlet and cover with three cartouches of birds and flowers on a blue ground, the field scattered with flowers on a black ground. The pierced cover with chrysanthemum-shaped knob and the mounts of copper-gilt.

    Although unsigned, for Yasuyuki did not sign his work until a few years later than this, we can confidently attribute this small piece to Yasuyuki. By 1890, he was making dark coloured grounds (apparently more difficult than the yellows and greens), with pictoral elements within wirework cartouches. He was to specialize in fine but not excessive wirework, with gradual lessening of the importance of the borders, and the elimination of the cartouche in favour of tripartite patterns without formal divisions. For this, his work was praised by the perceptive judges of the Fourth National Industrial Exposition in Tōkyō in 1896.
  • Details

    Associated place
    Asia Japan (place of creation)
    Date
    1880s
    Artist/maker
    attributed to Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845 - 1927)
    Material and technique
    metal, with cloisonné enamel; gilt copper mounts
    Dimensions
    with lid 8.1 cm (height)
    without lid 6.4 cm (height)
    7 cm (diameter)
    Material index
    Technique index
    Object type index
    containervesseljar jarlet,
    No. of items
    2
    Credit line
    Purchased with the assistance of the Story Fund, 1993.
    Accession no.
    EA1993.39
  • Further reading

    Impey, Oliver, and Joyce Seaman, Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period 1868-1912, Ashmolean Handbooks (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 2005), no. 34 on p. 72, pp. 8 & 22, illus. p. 73

Glossary

cloisonné

  • cloisonné

    Decorative technique in which wires are attached to a metal body and coloured enamels are applied between the wires.

Location

    • Second floor | Room 36 | Japan

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Publications online

  • Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period 1868-1912 by Oliver Impey and Joyce Seaman

    Japanese Decorative Arts of the Meiji Period

    Circular, almost spherical jarlet and cover with three cartouches of birds and flowers on a blue ground, the field scattered with flowers on a black ground. The pierced cover with chrysanthemum-shaped knob and the mounts of copper-gilt.

    Although unsigned, for Yasuyuki did not sign his work until a few years later than this, we can confidently attribute this small piece to Yasuyuki. By 1890, he was making dark coloured grounds (apparently more difficult than the yellows and greens), with pictoral elements within wirework cartouches. He was to specialize in fine but not excessive wirework, with gradual lessening of the importance of the borders, and the elimination of the cartouche in favour of tripartite patterns without formal divisions. For this, his work was praised by the perceptive judges of the Fourth National Industrial Exposition in Tōkyō in 1896.
Notice

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