Page 30 - Bonhams September 12 2018 New York Japanese Works of Art

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SANO TAKACHIKA 佐野隆親 The award was recorded in the third issue of Bijutsu gahō (Magazine
A Set of Two Silver Incense-Burners in the Form of Geese of Art), an authoritative bilingual journal founded in the wake of
双鵞鳥彫金銀香炉 Japan’s great success at the World’s Columbian Exhibition, which
Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1890s commented that the “workmanship of the heron, from its ruffled
Naturalistically chiseled and with details in shakudō, shibuichi, and plumage to the scared or angered expression of its eyes is faultless
gold, one of the two geese with wings outstretched about to take off, and that of the crow . . . is equally so.” The same lifelike qualities can
the other standing on its right leg, its left leg raised, an opening in its be seen in the present pair of geese, as well as in three works by
back fitted with a silver liner and with a detachable lid pierced with Takachika in the Khalili Collection; another work by Takachika, a silver
three openings, signed inside with chiseled characters Takachika 隆 eagle and bronze snake on the trunk of a tree, was in the famous
親, each bird on a low wood stand carved to resemble rough ground Japanese collection formed by the English connoisseur Michael
Heights without stands 6 1/2 in. (16.5 cm) and 4 7/8 in. (12.5 cm) Tomkinson and published in 1898.
Heights with stands 7 1/4 in. (18.5 cm) and 5 3/4 in. (14.5 cm)
Reference
$25,000 - 35,000 Bijutsu gahō 美術画報 (The Magazine of Art) October 1894
Impey and Fairley 1995, cat. nos. 120–122
This accomplished artist may have started his career in the regional Takaoka-shi Bijutsukan 高岡市美術館 (Takaoka City Museum of Art)
2012
metalworking center of Takaoka (see lot 16), but by 1894 he was a Tomkinson 1898, p. 65
member of the Tōkyō Chōkōkai (Tokyo Carvers’ Association) and a
set of figures of a heron and a crow by him was awarded a Second
Class Diploma at the 27th Spring Exhibition of the Nihon Bijutsu
Kyōkai (Japan Art Association).

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