Late 19th Century Japanese Meiji Bronze Usubata with Turtles for Ikebana

Japanese Antique Choba Tansu (Merchant Chest) Meiji Era Antique Choba - Tansu (merchant's chest) from the Tohoku area of Northern Japan circa 1868-1912. Made with Kiri (Paulownia) wo...

Camphorwood Campaign Chest - Late 19th Century Chinese Export Case (Medium) This hardwood chest has brass hardware, including handles. It has a plaque on the top that would have bee...

Camphorwood Campaign Chest - Late 19th Century Chinese Export Case (Medium) This hardwood chest has brass hardware, including handles. It has a brass plaque on the top that has been inscribed with the owner's name, R. B. Van Cleave...

Elegant Mid-Century Modern vintage crystal decanter with stopper by Orrefors (Swedish, founded 1898), c. 1960's. Engraved signature to base Orrefors HM 2498 - this particular style was by Edvard Hall. Includes original red Orrefors Sweden sticker with logo. "Orrefors HM 2498" etched into base. Measures 11.5" H x 3" W x 3" D. Orrefors Glassworks was founded in 1898 on the same site where ironworks operations had been run since 1726. In the same year that the glassworks was founded, a hot shop was built for making technical, medical and household glass and stemware to make use of waste wood and labour. Glass now replaced the less profitable ironworks operations. In 1913, Consul Johan Ekman from Gothenburg became the new owner of Orrefors Glassworks. He appointed Albert Ahlin as manager of the glassworks and this marked the start of a new era. In 1914, Orrefors started manufacturing crystal products, and as well as cut crystal according to purchased patterns and samples, Orrefors made art glass using the overlay technique with etched decoration. The new management quickly saw that artists were needed in the business, so Simon Gate was employed in 1916 and was joined by Edward Hald a year later. That same year, Gate and Hald made their first tentative attempts at figure engraving. They also experimented with the new innovative graal (grail) glass technique that was developed at Orrefors by the master glassblower Knut Bergqvist. The major successes were achieved a few years later at the Gothenburg Exhibition in 1923, and in particular at the Paris Exhibition in 1925. The thin engraved glass was admired by the surrounding world, and both Orrefors and the artists themselves were awarded the Grand Prix. The successes of Simon Gate and Edward Hald in Paris in 1925 constituted the start of the long Orrefors tradition of creative design closely combined with genuine and innovative craftsmanship. Since then, new designers and skilled glassmakers have continued in the spirit of Gate and Hald. Vicke Lindstrand and Edvin Öhrström with the new glass technique called Ariel in the 1930s. Sven Palmqvist with Kraka and Ravenna in the 1940s. And in the 1950s with Fuga, which, along with Nils Landberg’s slender tulip-shaped glass “Tulpan” and Ingeborg Lundin’s apple-shaped vase “Äpplet”, are now seen as symbols of the renaissance of Swedish design. The 1960s are associated with Gunnar Cyrén’s Pop glass, and in the 1970s, Eva Englund, Olle Alberius, Lars Hellsten and Jan Johansson as well as Cyrén worked at the glassworks. Since the 1980s, designers such as Anne Nilsson, Erika Lagerbielke, Helen Krantz, Matz Borgström, Per B Sundberg, Martti Rytkönen, Lena Bergström, Ingegerd Råman, Malin Lindahl and Efva Attling...

A very large Meiji period bronze vase, possibly for temple use, with high relief design and elephant head handles, late 19th century, Japan. Of baluster form and unusual size, yet ...

This early 20th century iron vessel is a Meiji-era vase designed especially for ikebana, the Japanese art of floral arrangement. The two-piece vase was cast in the classical usubata (thin rim) form, with a broad, flat top with an upturned lip. Usubata vessels are typically cast of bronze and have been used in ikebana arrangements since the 16th century. The broad rim of this usubata vase...

This Meiji vase is a beautifully decorated metal alloy vase, realized in Japan under the Meiji Empire (1867-1912). Take a look at the relief decors, lions on the base of the handl...

19th Century (Meiji Period) Japanese bronze vase. It is realistically cast as a gnarled pine tree trunk with vines growing around it.