Gilt Bronze, Champlevé And Enameled Bottle. Japan Late 19th Century.

Enameled bottle on hollowed-out gilt bronze. One side is decorated with birds in flight, the other with flowery scrolls in the Chinese style of the 15th century. This Sino-inspired design is exceptional and unheard of in Meiji Japanese enamel art. The technique is equally surprising: instead of partitioning his decoration with metal wires (Shippo Yaki), the artist preferred the champlevé technique, with the motifs to be enameled into the bronze carved out, either with acid or in the wax before casting, if the bronze was lost-wax cast. Among the dozen or so great Japanese enamellers of this period, two of them could have used this technique: Shibataro and Tadasaburo. The former, a great lover of Chinese art, was an innovator of the Muzen technique, eliminating partitions and experimenting with new techniques, while the latter produced several works influenced by Chinese and Muslim art. This bottle is quite atypical for Japanese production of this period. Some have thought it to be the work of a Chinese silversmith, but the green enameling on the inside and underside make us think it is Japanese. Height 98x80mm. Good condition, with cracks around the foot and neck as shown in the photos. No restoration. Original gilding in good condition. Japan circa 1900. This is a very rare, if not unique, example worthy of inclusion in the finest collections.