Lot description
Property of Various Owners
NAMIKAWA SŌSUKE (1847-1910) FOR THE SHIPPŌ GAISHA COMPANY
A Massive Cloisonné-Enamel Plaque with Carp
Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1890
Worked in silver wires in standard and musen (“wireless”) techniques, and bokashi (shaded) enamels with three carp swimming beneath overhanging purple and white wisteria, the reverse finished in light blue counter enamel, signed on the reverse Shippō Gaisha, set in the original wood frame carved on the surface to resemble woven bamboo
34 1/2 x 25in (87.6 x 63.5cm); 40 x 29 1/2in (101.6 x 74.9cm) including frameFootnotes
In terms of pictorial style, technical execution, and quality this plaque is unmistakably a product of the workshop of Namikawa Sōsuke (1847-1910) but is not signed with the Sakigake character that he started to apply to the reverse or base of his works starting in about 1893. Instead, the reverse bears the mark of the Shippō Gaisha (Enamel Company), an enterprise that Namikawa gradually had taken over during the 1880s, eventually moving it from Nagoya to his headquarters in Tokyo. See Bonhams, Glass Mountains, Silver Moon: A Special Exhibition of Masterpieces of Japanese Art from a Private Collection, New York, 2019, cat. no. 4.
Quoted from the lot page, © Bonhams. Bonhams, Fine Japanese & Korean Art, 2026-09-16, lot 1003 ↗
Public historical auction result, cited to the auction house’s own lot page. It records what one object made on one day. It is not a valuation of any work, and nothing here is offered for sale.