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Handled Flower Basket (T-2367)

Creator: Kinseki Nakata
Offered by: Thomsen Gallery

Description
Timber bamboo and Takano bamboo, rattan; square plaiting over twill plaiting, bending, wrapping, knotting

Signed underneath Kinseki saku (Made by Kinseki) with the artist’s characteristic stippled characters

Fitted wood storage box inscribed outside Nakata Kinseki sensei saku hanakago Takanotake ari (Flower basket by Master Nakata Kinseki, incorporating bamboo from Takano)

Exhibited: Daijuikkai Ibaragi Kogeikai (Eleventh Ibaragi [Prefecture] Craft Exhibition), May 20–25, 1948; listed in an accompanying exhibition leaflet.

This is a rare datable example of a flower basket by Nakata Kinseki, a leading pupil of Iizuka Hosai II (eldest brother of Iizuka Rokansai) whose works appear infrequently on the market due to his relatively early death. Kinseki followed several of his master’s styles; for a basket by Hosai II in the striking combination of techniques seen here, compare Tochigi Kuranomachi Bijutsukan (Tochigi Kuranomachi Museum of Art), Seitan hyakuyonjugonen take kogeika Nidai Iizuka Hosai: Take o ami take ni ikiru (The Bamboo Artist Iizuka Hosai II, Celebrating the 145th Anniversary of his Birth: Plaiting Bamboo, Living for Bamboo), exhibition catalogue, Tochigi, Tochigi Kuranomachi Bijutsukan, 2017, cat. no. 27 (p. 37).

Takanotake (Takano bamboo), mentioned in the box inscription, is a variety with many strong, narrow culms, used among other things for the points of walking canes and umbrellas.

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Notes:	Signed on bottom of basket and on storage box
Origin:	Japan
Period:	1920-1949
Materials:	Bamboo and rattan
Condition:	Good. Excellent condition
Creation Date:	1948
Styles / Movements:	Modern, Asian
Patterns:	Asian/Oriental, Geometric, Handmade, Textured
Dealer Reference #:	T-2367
Incollect Reference #:	637763

Dimensions

W.	6.3 in;	H.	14.33 in;	D.	6.3 in;
W.	16 cm;	H.	36.4 cm;	D.	16 cm;

Message from Seller:

Thomsen gallery, located in a townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, offers important Japanese paintings and works of art to collectors and museums worldwide. The gallery specializes in Japanese screens and scrolls; in early Japanese tea ceramics from the medieval through the Edo periods; in masterpieces of ikebana bamboo baskets; and in gold lacquer objects.