183 - ANDO JUBEI: A LARGE AND SUPERB MORIAGE AND MUSEN CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL ‘BLOSSOMING LILIES’ VASE

ANDO JUBEI: A LARGE AND SUPERB MORIAGE AND MUSEN CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL ‘BLOSSOMING LILIES’ VASE By Ando Jubei (1876-1953), sealed with the Ando mark Japan, early 20th century, Meiji (1868-1912) to Taisho period (1912-1926) Superbly crafted, the tall baluster body gently tapering towards the foot and rising to high, rounded shoulders and a short neck, the mouth and foot fitted with silvered rims. The exterior is finely decorated against a luminous powder-blue ground with blossoming lilies, the white and pale-blue petals delicately shaded around pale yellow-green stamens and set among long, lanceolate leaves in graduated shades of blue. The design masterfully combines fine silver-wire cloisonné with musen (wireless) enameling to create soft, painterly transitions, while selected petals are built up in moriage relief, lending the blossoms remarkable depth and sculptural presence. The underside is sealed with the Ando mark. Condition: Excellent condition with no restorations or repairs visible under UV light. HEIGHT 30.3 cm WEIGHT 1.3 kg Ando Jubei (1876-1953) was one of the leading figures of the Nagoya cloisonné industry during the late Meiji and Taisho periods. The celebrated Ando Cloisonné Company became renowned for its sophisticated use of advanced enameling techniques and produced works for the Imperial Household as well as for major international exhibitions. Ando participated in the Japan-British Exhibition of 1910, and the company remains active in Nagoya today. Moriage, literally ‘piling-up’, is a painstaking technique demanding exceptional care, especially during the polishing stage. It entails the successive layering of enamel to achieve a three-dimensional effect and is especially suited to natural motifs, such as plants and flowers. This technique is believed to have been inspired by the raised enamels displayed by Western craftsmen at the Paris 1900 Exposition Universelle. In Japan, moriage first appeared at the Fifth Domestic Exposition in Osaka in 1903, presented by Kawade Shibataro and the Ando Company. The technical difficulty of the process, combined with its striking visual impact, has rendered moriage cloisonné works highly prized by collectors. Musen, literally ‘wireless’, is a cloisonné technique in which the metal wires separating individual fields of enamel are removed before the final firing or dispensed with altogether. This allows adjacent colors to merge in subtle gradations, producing the soft, painterly effects characteristic of the finest musen enamels. On the present vase, this technique is particularly effective in the delicately shaded petals of the lilies, contrasting beautifully with the crisp silver-wire outlines and raised moriage decoration. Auction comparison: Compare a closely related moriage enamel vase by Ando Jubei, decorated with snapdragons on a blue-green ground, Meiji period, 31.2 cm high, at Christie’s, New York, 22 September 2005, lot 261 (sold for USD 12,000, or approx. EUR 18,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).