A JAPANESE CLOISONNE ENAMEL VASE AND COVER BY NAMIKAWA YASUYUKI

A JAPANESE CLOISONNE ENAMEL VASE AND COVER BY NAMIKAWA YASUYUKI, C1880-90 with speckled green or fawn ground panels of flowers and butterflies or a phoenix, with silver and copper wires, brass rims and feet, kiku knop, 14.5cm h Exhibited: (possibly) Barcelona, Universal Exposition, 1888. Sold with a blue card exhibition label found inside.Coben (LA) and D C Ferster, Japanese Cloisonne, 1990, p242, in discussing the apparent paradox that whilst many cloisonne objects of moderate quality were signed, much of the finest work was left unsigned. In the specific example of Namikawa Yasuyuk the artist himself is quoted "If my work will not declare itself to be mine, then the marking will do no good".Although Coben and Ferster and other sources do not include Barcelona amongst the list of exhibitions in which Namikawa's work was shown, his enamels were displayed in the Japanese pavilion at Barcelona co-ordinated by Matsuo Gisuke (1837-1932) alongside work by Kozan, Eisuke and Chokichi, together with a large display of the work of prestigious Japanese companies,(see Turull (R B), Japanese Influence on Decorative Arts in Barcelona, article in Design Discourse, vol IV, No 1, July 2008.)For other very similar examples of Namikawa cloisonne 'tea vases' see Splendours of Imperial Japanese Art of the Meiji period from the Khalili Collection, Catalogue No 25 (a pair) and the examples in the Victoria & Albert Museum, Nos FE.60: 1& 2 -2011, FE61: 1-4-1011.