A fine cloisonné-enamel and musen ('wireless') rounded rectangular tray By Namikawa Sosuke (1847-1910), Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th century Decorated with an egret partially obscured among tall bearded irises growing in a pond, after a design by Watanabe Seitei, on a ground graduated in colour from yellow at the top to pale grey at the bottom, the egret worked with white musen ('wireless') enamel plumage, its beak, leg, and eye subtly highlighted in gold wire, the outlines of the blades of grass and the petals on the white iris also in gold wire, the reverse worked in gilt wire enamel with numerous densely patterned cherry blossoms in pale brown on a dark plum-coloured ground, applied with a shakudo rim, inscribed on the bottom right Seitei with a seal; signed on the reverse in silver wire with the Sakigake (seal of Namikawa Sosuke). 20cm x 14.5cm (7 7/8in x 5¾in). 注脚 For a lobed tray by the artist depicting an egret perched on a willow branch, see Oliver Impey and Malcolm Fairley, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art, vol.3, Enamel, London, Kibo Foundation, 1994, cat. no.91. A pair of yellow-ground vases by the artist also depicting egrets on willow branches is illustrated in ibid., cat. no.92. 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 nineteenth century and the early years of the twentieth 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 colour 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 colour into his designs, although it is thought that wires between different colours 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).