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

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

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Tray with two sparrows on a branch

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

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

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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

    Rectangular tray with two sparrows, one holding a fruiting branch in its beak, perched on a bough, with a white ground surrounded by a foliate border. The reverse with clouds and stylised flowers on a turquoise ground. The tray unsigned; the image signed: Seitei with kakihan.

    Namikawa Sōsuke (1847-1910) (no relation to Namikawa Yasuyuki) was more of an entrepreneur than an artist, though he did have a more-or-less consistent 'house style'. He specialized in the use of less and less visible wire, making his work look as much like a painting on porclain as possible; indeed he both adapted the work of at least two painters on a regular basis, and produced cloisonné copies of famous historical paintings. Frequently he collaborated with the artist Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918) [see also EA1994.35 and EA1990.4], whose signature would be found on the front of the work, while Sōsuke's would be found on the reverse. This tray is in Seitei's somewhat scratchy early style, contrasting with the slightly blander style of the following pieces.

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