Lot 332

[PRIVATE SCOTTISH COLLECTION, PERTHSHIRE] JAPANESE SILVER KONPEITO BONBONNIÈRE BEARING THE IMPERIAL KIKUMON

BY THE MITSUKOSHI COMPANY, LATE MEIJI TO TAISHO PERIOD

Fine Asian Works of Art

Auction: 06 November 2026 from 10:00 GMT

Estimate: £1,500 - £2,000

Description

明治至大正 ‘三越製純銀’款銀質纏枝菊紋蓋盒

the cover with the Imperial gold kikumon with sixteen petals and etched with scrolling vines issuing from the central rosette, the box with two small kiku blossom handles with rings, signed to the base ‘Mitsukoshi sei jungin’ (made by Mitsukoshi, pure silver)

Dimensions

5.5cm wide; 75g

Provenance

Private Scottish collection, Perthshire

蘇格蘭私人收藏, 珀斯郡

Footnote

This miniature box belongs to a highly refined diplomatic tradition born in 1889. Inspired by the elegant customs of European royal courts, the Japanese imperial family began commissioning these compact bonbonnières to hand-gift to visiting dignitaries and nobility during momentous state events. At the centre of the cover rests a solid-gold, sixteen-petalled kikumon (chrysanthemum crest). This precise insignia was strictly legally protected, serving as the exclusive, sovereign badge of the Emperor of Japan and the direct imperial line.[1]

To meet the exacting standards of the palace, the court turned to Mitsukoshi, Tokyo's premier luxury purveyor. Their master silversmiths executed this piece not out of standard sterling, but out of jungin (pure silver), engraving it with a dense, unbroken pattern of scrolling karakusa vines to symbolise eternity. On the sides of the box, the artisans sculpted miniature chrysanthemum blossom handles with rotating loops. Rather than jewels, this box was made to hold konpeitō-aprised, star-shaped crystalline sugar candy. Remarkably, it still retains a rare surviving fragment of the original crimson silk cord used to tie the gift box closed

The exceptional rarity of a complete box with its imperial insignia entirely intact is underscored by surviving parallels in elite collections. A closely comparable silver bonbonnières with wave design and gold kikumon, celebrating the return of the Crown Prince (future Emperor Showa) from diplomatic travel abroad as shown through the engraved imagery of waves, dated to 1921AD, is in the Nancy and Robin Markbreiter Collection, published in ‘Japanese Imperial Silver Bonbonnières’, Arts of Asia, Spring 2022, image 12, p. 33. Another related lidless box from the same Mitsukoshi workshop, part of the celebrated Freddie Mercury collection, was sold at Sotheby's London, 11 September 2023, lot 1071.