Page 14 - Bonhams September 12 2018 New York Japanese Works of Art

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INOUE OF KYOTO 京都井上
Lidded Ornament in the Form of a Buddhist Temple Bell
梵鐘形彫金ブロンズ蓋物
Meiji era (1868–1912), late 19th century
Cast in the form of a bell, the dark-brown patinated bronze chiseled
and decorated in gold, silver, shakudō, shibuichi, and copper
depicting a dragon amongst raging waves and clouds, a lotus motif
on either wide, with a band of formal lappet ornament inlaid in gold
around the base, the domed lid with gold lappets and raised bosses
imitating those on a real bell, surmounted by a handle in the form of
a double-dragon head in gold with an inlaid shakudō eye, signed on
the base with chiseled and gilt characters Kyōto Inoue sei 京都井上
製 (Manufactured by Inoue of Kyoto)
Height 6 1/8 in. (15.5 cm)
$8,000 - 10,000

During the Meiji era, Japanese metalworkers began to manufacture
ornaments in the form of Buddhist temple bells. Reflecting
increasingly sophisticated Western interest in native traditions and
beliefs, such pieces were mostly intended not for liturgical use in
Japan but as ornaments for American and European drawing rooms.
Even so, their makers made an effort to give them the appearance
of miniaturized versions of the real thing, sometimes as with this
particularly high-quality lot adding fanciful surface motifs that
appealed to foreign taste for exotic myth and legend.

Reference
Earle 2004, cat. no. 149, an example by Unno Moritoshi

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