Lot 385
INLAID-IRON TESTUBIN (TEA KETTLE) WITH SWALLOW AND REEDS
MEIJI PERIOD
Fine Asian & Islamic Works of Art
Auction: 3 November 2023 from 09:00 GMT
Description
明治 龍文堂造刻款 錯金銀秋雁蘆荻圖鑄鐵壺
cast in iron and of slightly tapered cylindrical form with a short spout, the body decorated in silver and gold nunomezogan with flying swallows and reeds, the upper edge and lower waistline presented with an erosion design and rocky lines, the handle adorned with a pair of swallows in silver, the bronze cover finished with a flower-bud finial and signed on the underside Ryubundo zo
Dimensions
16.5cm wide; 1350g
Provenance
Provenance: Private English collection, Perthshire
Footnote
Note: Ryubundo is one of the leading studios in the Japanese Metalware industry. With many classic and significant masterpieces passing down through generations, Ryubundo kettles are produced with the highest standard of craftsmanship, and with precious materials. From the founder of the studio, Shiho Ryubun (1735-1798), every successive director of the studio Ryubundo were talented not only in metalworking, but also in painting, calligraphy, and poetry. Therefore, the aristocratic, literatic tastes are the main features of Ryubundo tetsubin. From the middle of the Edo Period (1603-1868) when tea culture was popular everywhere in Japan, the development of Ryubundo reached a boom, and this boom continued to the latter Meiji Period (1868~1912). The studio was mentioned in the ironic novel by the famous Japanese writer Natsume Soseki, I Am a Cat. The sentence writes “those people living a luxurious life would lose their sleep if they could not hear the sound made by the lid of Ryubundo iron kettles when water is boiling.”
A closely comparable Ryubundo iron testubin of similar form and technique, but with butterfly decoration, was sold at Bonhams New York, 15 March 2017, lot 6300.