An inlaid iron card holder and an inlaid iron cigarette case


By Komai Otojiro of Kyoto, Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th/early 20th century Each worked in typical Komai flat relief of gold and silver, the card case decorated on one side with a fan-shaped panel enclosing a family of chickens amidst flowering autumn plants growing behind a bamboo fence and two overlapping panels enclosing swallows flying among irises and thatched huts set on a lakeshore on the other, all reserved on a ground of dense fruiting vine, unsigned, 7.2cm x 10cm (2 13/16in x 4in); the second a cigarette case decorated with a kingfisher flying towards an overhanging pine branch on one side and an unidentified European family crest on the other, bordered by fruiting vine, signed on the inside Nihon koku Kyoto no ju Komai sei within a square seal beneath a dragonfly; 8.7cm x 7.7cm (3 3/8in x 3in). (2).