TAKI KATEI (1830-1901) MEIJI ERA, DATED END OF MARCH 1882 A Japanese kakemono (hanging scroll painting), ink and colour on paper, depicting two mandarin ducks by a stream, with further birds perched amongst flowering branches of peony and prunus above; inscribed Mizunoe-uma sangatsu gekan, chakei ganjo nite sa shunro chu nit utsusu, Katei shujin (At the Spring Pavilion, by the Tea Valley Ravine in the last ten days of the third month of Meiji 15, painted by Master Katei), and with three seals reading Katei Shujin, Kokokan shu and Ikko shugetsu, in a tomobako wood box inscribed Katei o hitsu, gokumitsu chakushoku, kacho zu (Painting of bird and flower, painted in rich and detailed pigments, by the brush of Master Katei), 128cm x 66cm. (2) Taki Katei was an artist specialising in kacho-ga (bird and flower) paintings. He exhibited in many International Exhibitions including the one in Vienna (1873), Philadelphia (1876), Chicago (1893) and Paris (1900), as well as in the Japanese Industrial Expositions (1877, 1881 and 1890). In 1893, he was appointed Imperial Household Artist and he was the highest-paid craftsman to take part in the decoration of the Imperial Palace. The World Museum in Liverpool staged the first exhibition dedicated to Taki Katei outside Japan in 2019.