A silk-embroidered panel of a wintry snowy grove


Produced by the Iida Shinshichi House of Takashimaya, Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th/early 20th centuryWorked in the finest silk and metallic threads, inventively deploying long and short stitches, flat and twisted threads in a palette of browns, silver and white to depict a sunlit wintry snowy grove, possibly of buna (Japanese beech) trees, within the original coromandel zelkova wood glazed frame with brocade backing, inscribed on a copper plate: Iida & Co. "Takashimaya" Kyoto Tokyo Yokohama in Roman letters and in Chinese characters Takashimaya Iida Boekiten Kyoto Tokyo Yokohama fixed onto the bottom of the frame on its reverse side. Overall: 68.7cm x 86.2cm (27in x 33 7/8in); image: 49.5cm x 66.2cm (19½in x 26in).
|ProvenanceA French private collection.Along with Nishimura Sozaemon and Kawashima Jinbei, Iida Shinshichi (1803-1874) was one of the leading Japanese producers of ornamental textiles during the Meiji era. While Nishimura took the lead, participating in domestic and overseas exhibitions from the early 1870s, Iida was at first simply a retail merchant, yet although it was not until 1879 that he acquired the licence of a gofuku-donya (wholesale dealer in silk kimono materials), his firm rose to eminence in the late 1880s and came to rival that of Nishimura. For a comprehensive discussion of the origins of the Iida company, see Hiroko T. McDermott, 'The way of the Newcomer: A History of the Iida Shinshichi House (Takashimaya)', in Hiroko T. McDermott and Clare Pollard, Threads of Silk and Gold, Ornamental Textiles from Meiji Japan, Oxford, The Ashmolean Museum, 2012, pp.55-65.