A stunning and very large Japanese mixed metal vase decorated with a carved monkey on the front, his eyes inlaid with gold and an amazing branch with golden peaches on the back. The bottom bears the incised signature of Yokoyama Takumobo. This item is from the collection of William Jennings. This collection was assembled by Jennings’ parents, who lived in Tianjin, China (then known as Tientsin) in the 1930s. Jennings’ father, Harold Jennings, was a British naval engineer who had originally come to China in the late 1920s and ran a shipyard in Tianjin. His mother, Mary Bayley Jennings, was a nurse from Ohio who originally traveled to Tianjin in 1938. The Jennings were active in the expatriate community in China and throughout Asia, and traveled within Asia, to places such as Hong Kong and Kyoto, collecting art pieces while they went. William Jennings was born in 1939, and the family moved to the United States in 1941 to escape growing conflict in the region, taking their collection with them. Condition No major losses, scratches, or chips; some spots of discoloration to the patina; rim is bent.