Page 135 - Bonhams Fine Japanese Art London Nov. 2019

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A CLOISONNÉ-ENAMEL ROUNDED RECTANGULAR TRAY One of the greatest craft entrepreneurs of the later Meiji era, Namikawa
Attributed to Namikawa Sosuke (1847-1910), Meiji era (1868-1912), Sosuke was until recently best known in Japan for a set of 32 decorative
1890-1895, after a design by Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918) panels commissioned for Tokyo’s Akasaka Rikyu Palace, completed in
Worked in musen (wireless) and silver wire with a design of a standing 1909. These date from the last years of his very productive life, nearly
white cockerel, its face and beak of red and yellow and its legs of three decades after he began to experiment with the technique known
yellow enamel on a ground of a pale grey rising to yellow, within a as musen shippo (wireless enamelling), his most enduring contribution
shakudo rim, signed on the right side Settei and sealed, the reverse to an art form that developed at extraordinary speed in Japan between
worked in gilt wire and enamels with numerous densely patterned the mid-19th century and the early years of the 20th century. In Chinese
cherry blossoms in pale brown on a dark plum-coloured ground; cloisonné enamelling, the wires separating the different areas of fused
signed in silver wire with a single character Sakigake (the seal of and polished enamels that made up a design also served to hold the
Namikawa Sosuke). 1.5cm x 31.2cm x 26cm (5/8in x 12¼in x 10¼in). enamels in place during the firing process, and the individual areas
of color were relatively small. Sosuke, followed shortly after by his
£10,000 - 15,000 rivals, managed to improve the chemistry of the enamels so that they
JPY1,300,000 - 2,000,000 adhered more securely to the metal bases of his wares, allowing him
US$12,000 - 18,000 to introduce large areas of color into his designs, although it is thought
that wires between different colors still had to be painstakingly applied
and removed at each stage of manufacture. Thanks to these and other
technical breakthroughs, later Meiji-era enamellers were often able to
emulate the effects of brush painting on paper or silk. In recognition
of his achievements, in 1896 Sosuke was appointed to the order of
Teishitsu Gigeiin (Artist-Craftsman to the Imperial Household).

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