NAMIKAWA YASUYUKI (1845-1927)
TWO FINE CLOISONNE ENAMEL VASES, MEIJI PERIOD
£17,010
Fine Asian & Islamic Works of Art
Auction: 3 November 2023 from 09:00 GMT
Description
明治 「京都並河」款 並河靖之（1845-1927）作坊製 銅胎掐絲琺瑯楓樹紋及花鳥紋瓶 共箱（共兩件）
one worked in silver wire and coloured enamels with a lone bird perched in a branch of red and yellow maple leaves against a bright blue ground, the foot decorated with floral lozenges, the rims silver, the base signed with chiselled characters on a silver tablet Kyoto Namikawa; the other one intricately worked in colourful enamel and gold wire with two birds perched on prunus branches and bamboo leaves against a black ground, the base signed with chiselled characters of the same mark; both with bespoke wooden stand and tomobako
Dimensions
heights: 12.1cm and 23.2cm
Provenance
Provenance: Private English collection, London; acquired by current owner’s great-aunt Etta May Gubbins (1871-1955) during her honeymoon trip in Yokohama in 1910. Etta May Gubbins married in 1909 at Kilmallock, Ireland to Captain Burston Beresford Gubbins (1876-1929), The 13th Hussars.
May Gubbins, nee May Gibson, was the eldest of the three daughters of Edmund Gibson who was born at Quernmore Park, near Lancaster in 1824, went out to New Zealand with his brother Wilson and staked a claim to about 20,000 acres of land in South Island and died at Otago in 1886.
Footnote
Note: Born in 1845 to a rural samurai family, Namikawa Yasuyuki started his cloisonné business in Kyoto in 1873 and by the 1880s was successful enough to build, and then extend and upgrade, a large compound that eventually included workshops housing more than 20 employees. Having won countless medals at national and international exhibitions, his works were sought after by the national and international collectors during his lifetime and became even more highly collectable thereafter.
A closely comparable cloisonné enamel small vase, by the workshop of Namikawa Yasuyuki, with the same, shape and almost identical design of a lone bird perched in a branch of red and yellow maple leaves but against a pale green ground, was sold at Bonham's New York, 24 September 2020, lot 1039.