INABA NANAHO: A FINE MIDNIGHT BLUE CLOISONNÉ DISH WITH SPARROWS ON A CHERRY TREE By the Inaba Nanaho workshop, sealed with the Inaba Nanaho studio mark Japan, Meiji period (1868-1912) Of oval form, the bowl supported on a short foot and rising to rounded sides and a silver rim. The interior and exterior covered with a superb midnight-blue ground, decorated on the elongated sides of the exterior with sparrows perched in a young sakura (cherry) tree bearing white blossoms, the branches of the tree still pale green on its tips. The rim of the foot decorated with a band of floral blossoms. The base sealed with the studio mark INABA and the silver rimmed foot is stamped with the jungin mark (pure silver). LENGTH 14 cm WEIGHT 274.2 g Condition: Excellent condition. Inaba Nanaho was a cloisonné artist who owned the Kin’unken company of Kyoto, which he bought in 1889 after having worked for the company at its founding in 1871. His works won prizes at international exhibitions in Vienna 1873, Paris 1878, Amsterdam 1883, and Nuremberg 1885. Inaba initially began working for the Kin’unken company as a former low-ranking samurai in order to supplement his meagre stipend. His art name, Nanaho, uses the same characters as those for shippo, the Japanese term for enamels, which can also be read Nanaho. Auction comparison: Compare a related midnight blue cloisonné vase depicting an eagle on a maple tree, by the same artist and signed with the studio seal, at Christie’s, The Avo Krikorian Collection, 19 February 2007, Geneva, lot 200 (sold for CHF 10,200).