Page 12 - Japanese Art September 2017 New York

1012
HATTORI TADASABURO (DIED 1939)
A fine and large moriage cloisonné-enamel
vase
Taisho era (1912-1926), circa 1912-1920
The cylindrical vase with a square shoulder,
the neck flaring out to the mouth and worked
in standard and musen cloisonné techniques
with an overall design of sasa (broadleaf
bamboo), the silver wires of varying thickness
deliniating the stems and veins of the leaves,
the enamels of several shades of green and
white imitating the natural tones of the plant,
all against a light gray background, the foot
decorated with tightly scrolling vines and
flowers, incised signature on the base Hattori
in leaf-shaped reserve, mounts silver
15 1/2in (39.3cm) high

US$50,000 - 70,000
Hattori Tadasaburo of Nagoya was among
the finest cloisonné-enameling masters of his
day, excelling in a wide range of innovative
techniques and styles. He opened his own
studio in 1888 and won international honors
at the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbia
Exposition; at the Louisiana Purchase
Exposition, held at St. Louis in 1904, his
enamels were, most unusually, shown in the
Art Palace rather than the larger but less
prestigious Palace of Varied Industries. It is
not certain whether or not he invented the
demanding moriage (“piled-up”) technique
seen here, but he was certainly among the
first to exhibit it, starting at St. Louis, and is
admired for the way that he succeeded in
raising moriage designs to an unusually high
level above the ground enamel; see Frederic
T. Schneider, The Art of Japanese Cloisonné
Enamel: History, Techniques and Artists: 1600
to the Present, Jefferson NC, McFarland &
Company, Inc., 2010, p. 202. For a pair of
vases by Hattori Tadasaburo, see lot 1330.

10 | BONHAMS