Japanese Meiji Champleve and Bronze Urn

Presenting a gorgeous Japanese Meiji Champleve and bronze urn.

Made in Japan during the Meiji Period circa 1880.

The body of the urn is cast bronze and it is entirtely covered in various colored enamels in the manner of Champleve, depicting dragons, birds of paradise and floral motiff’s.

The pithing to the enamel is indicative of it’s genuine age and the bronze has a naturally aged patina. The inside of the urn likewise exhibits real age.

It is very unusual to find champleve pieces that cover almost the entirety of the piece.

At some stage in it’s life (we believe circa 1920-ish) someone decided to convert this into a table lamp. Not only that, but they replaced the interior base (which had probably corroded with use as a planter) with the backing of a Japanese Bronze Mirror. They then drilled a hole in the base and side for wiring. Both are now filled. The mirror is intriguing in itself. It appears to have been a quality mirror as the symbols, script and decoration as quite exceptional. It is impossible to tell if it was a reproduction of a 16th Century Japanese hand Mirror and the symbols appear to indicate that it was made in the Tensho Area in 1580 and a signature. Other symbols seen to indicate ‘Heaven’ and ‘Crane”. Because it was used to replace a base I would err on the side of caution and form the opinion that it was a reproduction hand mirror, albeit a very high quality one !

There is one minor crack where the base meets the enamel, but it does not adversely affect the piece.

Large and impressive piece measuring 14 inches tall and with a diameter of 14 inches.

A Stunning Example Of Meiji Japanese Champleve !

Tensho (??) was a Japanese era name (??, nengo, “year” name) after Genki and before Bunroku. This period spanned the years from July 1573 through December 1592. The reigning emperors were Ogimachi-tenno (?????) and Go-Yozei-tenno (?????).

The Meiji era (??, Meiji, Japanese pronunciation: [me??(d)?i]) is an era of Japanese history which extended from October 23, 1868 to July 30, 1912. This era represents the first half of the Empire of Japan, during which period the Japanese people moved from being an isolated feudal society at risk of colonization by Western powers to the new paradigm of a modern, industrialized nation state and emergent great power, influenced by Western scientific, technological, philosophical, political, legal, and aesthetic ideas. As a result of such wholesale adoption of radically different ideas, the changes to Japan were profound, and affected its social structure, internal politics, economy, military, and foreign relations. The period corresponded to the reign of Emperor Meiji. It was preceded by the Keio era and was succeeded by the Taisho era, upon the accession of Emperor Taisho.

Champlevé is an enamelling technique in the decorative arts, or an object made by that process, in which troughs or cells are carved, etched, die struck, or cast into the surface of a metal object, and filled with vitreous enamel. The piece is then fired until the enamel fuses, and when cooled the surface of the object is polished. The uncarved portions of the original surface remain visible as a frame for the enamel designs; typically they are gilded in medieval work. The name comes from the French for “raised field”, “field” meaning background, though the technique in practice lowers the area to be enameled rather than raising the rest of the surface.