A fine silver and enamelled koro (incense burner) and cover in the form of a peacock


Attributed to Hasegawa Issei, Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th/early 20th centuryThe male peafowl naturalistically rendered with a fan-shaped crest on the head and its long, brilliantly coloured train of feathers trailing behind, the eyes inlaid in brown and blue enamel with a black centre, the plumage on its wings inlaid in contrasting shakudo, bronze, shibuichi and silver, its legs of shibuichi, its neck and nape of silver, a small bronze detachable section on its back forming the cover, unsigned; with a wood storage box. 18cm x 32.5cm (7 1/16in x 12¾in). (3).
|Hasegawa Issei worked in Tokyo during the Meiji and Taisho eras and was known for his silver okimono: compare a similarly executed standing okimono of a peacock signed by the artist, illustrated in Kiyomizu Sannenzaka Museum, Meiji no bankoku kangyo hakurankai no saigen bijutsu ten (The Art of Meiji Era International Expositions), Kyoto, 2010, p.27 and by Joe Earle ed., Splendors of Imperial Japan: Art of the Meiji Period from the Khalili Collection, London, The Khalili Family Trust, 2002, p.98, pl.no.50.