A cloisonné-enamel rounded rectangular trayAttributed to Namikawa Sosuke (1847-1910), Meiji era (1868-1912), 1890-1895, after a design by Watanabe Seitei (1851-1918)
Worked in musen (wireless) and silver wire with a design of a standing white cockerel, its face and beak of red and yellow and its legs of yellow enamel on a ground of a pale grey rising to yellow, within a shakudo rim, signed on the right side Settei and sealed, the reverse worked in gilt wire and enamels with numerous densely patterned cherry blossoms in pale brown on a dark plum-coloured ground; signed in silver wire with a single character Sakigake (the seal of Namikawa Sosuke). 1.5cm x 31.2cm x 26cm (5/8in x 12¼in x 10¼in).注脚One of the greatest craft entrepreneurs of the later Meiji era, Namikawa Sosuke was until recently best known in Japan for a set of 32 decorative panels commissioned for Tokyo's Akasaka Rikyu Palace, completed in 1909. These date from the last years of his very productive life, nearly three decades after he began to experiment with the technique known as musen shippo (wireless enamelling), his most enduring contribution to an art form that developed at extraordinary speed in Japan between the mid-19th century and the early years of the 20th century. In Chinese cloisonné enamelling, the wires separating the different areas of fused and polished enamels that made up a design also served to hold the enamels in place during the firing process, and the individual areas of color were relatively small. Sosuke, followed shortly after by his rivals, managed to improve the chemistry of the enamels so that they adhered more securely to the metal bases of his wares, allowing him 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).