657 - Shumei, Japanese bronze vase with silver and copper inlay, bird and chrysanthemums, Meiji period

Shumei, Japanese bronze vase with silver and copper inlay, bird and chrysanthemums, Meiji period Bronze, dark patina, with silver and copper inlay (zogan technique), slender baluster vase by Shumei, Japan, Meiji period circa 1900, signed on the base with two characters, read as “Shumei”, inlaid decoration all around with a bird in flight among flowering chrysanthemums and foliage on bamboo canes, complemented by fine engraved lines, very good condition commensurate with age with patina, D. 6 cm, H. 17.5 cm. 360-degree photo available on our website. During the Meiji period (1868 to 1912) the Japanese government promoted the export of arts and crafts, financed participation in the world's fairs from Vienna 1873 onwards and founded the trading company Kiritsu Kosho Kaisha for the export of art. Metal artists drew on the knowledge of the swordsmiths and combined copper, silver and gold into coloured alloys such as shakudo and shibuichi, so that their works appeared as if painted in many colours. The zogan inlay technique, in which precious metals are inlaid into a dark metal ground, had previously been used mainly on sword fittings such as sword guards (tsuba); Kyoto remains a centre of this technique to this day. Bronze vases with bird and flower decoration in silver and copper were among the export goods that catered to Japonisme in Europe and America.