Metallic Thread Metalwork

Meiji Period (1868-1912) From our Japanese collection, we are thrilled to offer this Japanese Pair of Cloisonne Enamel Vases attributed to Japanese Pair Cloisonne...

Chinese enamel and brass Zi Jin Cheng floral cloisonné vase that sits on a carved ebonised wooden stand. The vase has a black and gold background featuring various flowers and foliage in rich colours, including a lotus flower, rose, carnation and a bird mid-flight. There are also beautifully decorative borders around the top, middle and bottom. In very good vintage condition – no dents or loss of pattern. Produced in Zi Jin Cheng (China's Forbidden City), which was the Chinese imperial palace for almost 500 years, and is the largest imperial palace in the world. In antiquity, the cloisonné or champlevé technique was mostly used for jewellery and small fittings for clothes, weapons or similar small objects decorated with geometric or schematic designs, with thick cloisonné walls. In the Byzantine Empire techniques using thinner wires were developed to allow more pictorial images to be produced, mostly used for religious images and jewellery, and by then always using enamel. By the 14th century this enamel technique had spread to China, where it was soon used for much larger vessels such as bowls and vases; the technique remains common in China to the present day, and cloisonné enamel objects using Chinese...