ANTIQUE1900RAREUNIQUEJAPANESE KOMAI WARE & MOTHER OF PEARL SQUARE GRID BOX

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ANTIQUE1900RAREUNIQUEJAPANESE KOMAI WARE & MOTHER OF PEARL SQUARE GRID BOX:
$385.00

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ANTIQUE * EARLY 1900’S *

VERY RARE * UNIQUE * JAPANESE *

KOMAI WARE AND MOTHER OF PEARLBOX *

WITH SQUARE GRID BODY *

5.5”W x 4.25”D x 2.25”H

This piece comes from my paternalgrandmother who was born in 1896. Shewas a jeweler who specialized in enameling and silversmithing. She was fortunate enough to be able tocollect enamel pieces from all periods of time and from places all over theworld. This box may have been a gift to herfrom her brother, born in 1894, who lived overseas most of his life working,traveling and collecting everything imaginable.

As summarized by anappraiser, the box “is very interesting and rare, a mother of pearl and komai‘mixed metal’ square grid body, Japanese, from the early 20thCentury. Beautiful contrast.”

The .75” x .75” squares ofKomai ware and mother of pearl are mounted, most likely glued, to a woodenbox. There are 10 Komai ware squareseach depicting different images. Theremaining top and sides are “square grid” cut pieces of mother of pearl. The metal used in the Komai inlay is gold,silver and copper wire. The box measures5.5”W x 4.25”D x 2.25”H.

The pictures, includingtraditional Japanese motifs, depicted are:

1.A Temple On a Lake With aBridge, Tress and Mountains

2.Grapes WithLeaves

3.A Bird In Leaves

4.Elaborate Japanese Minka, (estatehome on a lake), with a backdrop of Mt. Fuji.

5.Iris

6.A Crane With AFull Moon And Clouds

7. Upside Down Square of a Man Standing by a Lake, With aTemple andMountains

8.Cherry Blossoms

9.Bamboo

10. A Second,more simple, Japanese Minka, (estate home on a lake), with a backdrop of Mt. Fuji.

Please feel free to email me with any questions. Thank is believed that damascene was brought toJapan about 2,000 years ago, reputedly form Damascus,through Korea. In the course of time, Japanese craftsmen becameskilled in its manufacture, and sword handles, helmets and other articles wereadorned.

In 1855, theKomaifamilyoriginated a form ofdamasceneused to ornament swords and other types ofartifacts, for which the family gained the highest respect for their finedecorative metalwork during the Meiji period (1869 - 1912). TheKomaifamilyheld the office ofsword-mounters to the Japanese courtfor over sevenyears. After changes brought about by the Meiji restoration in 1868, theSamurai were no longer allowed to openly wear swords, so theKomaifamilysought another form of livelihood, and began redirecting theirdamascenecraftto creating objects for use by the upper class. Typically one sees cigarettecases, since smoking was quite popular, brooches, and bracelets of linkedpanels….

Japanese metalwork, technically andartistically, has been unrivaled by that of other cultures, with no country orculture reaching the level of work seen by the Japanese sword-smith. Fabricatedutilizing a very difficult process of metalwork,Komaiwaretypically had a matte black base of iron or steel. The designs were then etchedinto the base metal by a fine needle-pointed tool, and were then inlaid withprecious metals such as silver and gold, to highlight the intricate designs andwere highly coveted from theMeijiperiod on.

Some of the traditionally used motifs were:bamboo,birds flying overhead, a Yoshino Village scene, a blooming cherry tree withbirds, and a traditional Japanese Minka, (estate home on a lake), with abackdrop of Mt. Fuji. Eachsolid panel has visual elements that are inlaid with gold and silver on an ironbase.

From “Their Japan”

byFrederic De Garis, 1936, Yoshikawa publisher, Bentendori, Yokahama“A design, first drawn on a piece of tissue paper, is placed over the metalsurface and traced with a fine chisel into the metal---then removed. Theoutlines thus cut are undercut for times crosswise and four times diagonally(hatched) to produce something like a silken texture. Into these minutegrooves, gold or silver threads almost as find as cobwebs are hammered, and adeer-horn hammer is used to smooth the surface and tamp down rough threadedges. The article is then placed in a cabinet and made to corrode by the useof nitrate acid, which later is removed with soda water. When dry, it is washedtwice in weak salt water and baked over a fire. Eight or nine times a day for aperiod of five days in summer and seven in winter, the article is washed andbaked until all the rust in the steel has been conducted out. The clean surfaceis the dipped into thick red-clay mud and baked again over a hot fire---thisprocess being repeated from 50 to 100 times.The next step is to coat the surface with powdered charcoal and oil, bake andrepeat from 10 to 20 times, adding more charcoal and oil each time. A piece ofcryptomeria wood is used to clean off the black powder, and a small steel rodto rub the surface to a polish. The last step is to add any necessary carvings.Often these are monograms or handwritten names of the purchasers, if desired.To retain the original polish, the article should be rubbed once a month with asoft cloth dipped in olive oil. Should the inlays become tarnished, rub themwith a cotton cloth stretched over a finger tip. ….”Damascene:

1. To decorate (metal) with wavypatterns of inlay or etching.

2.Metalwork decorated with wavy patterns of inlay or etching.

3. Toornament by etching or by inlaying, usually with gold or silver

[French damasquiner,from damasquin, of Damascus,from Latin Damascēnus, from Greek Damaskēnos, from Damaskos, Damascus.]

Meiji Period:

”The Meijiperiod (明治時代 Meiji-jidai?), also known as the Meiji era, is a Japanese era which extended from September 1868through July 1912. Thisperiod represents the first half of the Empire of Japan during which Japanesesociety moved from being an isolated feudal society to its modern form.Fundamental changes affected its social structure, internal politics, economy,military, and foreign relations.

In 1867/68, the Tokugawa era found an end inthe Meiji Restoration. Theemperor Meiji was moved from Kyoto to Tokyo which became the newcapital; his imperial power was restored. The actual political power wastransferred from the Tokugawa Bakufu into the hands of a small group of noblesand former samurai. On February 3, 1867, the fourteen year-old Prince Mutsuhitosucceeded his father, Emperor Kōmei, to the Chrysanthemum Throne as the 122ndemperor….

In 1912 emperor Meiji died,and the era of the ruling clique of elder statesmen (genro) was about to end.”

From Wikipedia. Please see for further reading.Meiji Period (1868 – 1

MOTHER OF PEARL:

Mother-of-pearl is the term applied to the luminous substanceobtained from the interior of shells from mollusks such as the green snail,nautilus and sea-ear, aquatic animal species found in fresh and marine warmwaters. Asian peoples cultivated these creatures for their hard outercoverings\' interior lustrous qualities. Once harvested, their shells were cutinto precise pieces to form distinct images in mosaic once assembled. Lacquer,the extremely toxic adhesive material that bound these brilliant componentstogether, is a milky white or light gray resin obtained in its liquid statefrom the lac tree (rhus verniciflua). Having been exposed to oxygen andhardened at 70 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit, this then-plasticized substance isdurable and resistant to most of the elements. Highly luminous shell fragments,cut by trained artists, were delicately arranged in wet lacquer on an object,forming a distinct image for decorative, narrative or ceremonial purposes.

Mother of pearl, also called nacre, is aniridescent layer of material that forms the shell lining of many mollusks….Twosubstances, one mineral and the other organic, combine to create mother ofpearl. Tiny hexagonal plates of aragonite, a form of calcium carbonate, arearranged in layers alternating with conchioliln, a flexible protein similar tosilk that is secreted by the mollusk. Aragonite on its own is very brittle, butcombined with the protein it forms a strong, flexible material that canwithstand hard use.

The mollusk first of all secretes a layer ofconchiolin. Aragonite crystals then form on this surface at numerous points,growing until they meet each other to form tiny plates. A further layer ofprotein is then deposited and so on, so that over time, many layers build up.

Mother of pearl has a hardness of about 3.5on Moh’s scale. This is quite soft compared with gemstones and most metals.Although its relative softness makes it easy to work with and cut into shapes,it also means that nacre objects can be easily scratched by other items ofjewelry, for example.

Theiridescence that makes nacre so attractive results from the fact that thearagonite crystals have a range of thicknesses that are close to thewavelengths of visible light. Some of the light that strikes the crystalline layerswill go through to the layers below, while some is reflected from the upper andthe lower surfaces. Layers tend to reflect particular wavelengths, that is,colors, depending on their thickness and on the angle of the light. When viewedfrom different angles, different colors are reflected. Small irregularities onthe surfaces make every piece of nacre unique.

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