A SUPERB KOMAI-STYLE GOLD AND SILVER INLAID BRONZE VASE WITH MONKEYSJapan, Meiji period (1868-1912)Of baluster form, supported on a spreading foot with slightly concave base, the straight shoulder surmounted by the short-waisted neck and galleried rim. Finely decorated in gold and silver nunomezogan and takazogan with two shaped panels enclosing numerous monkeys huddled together in various poses, some constituting the sambiki saru motif, also referred to as the three wise monkeys, using their hands to cover their own or each other’s ears, eyes, or mouth, the simians further well detailed with finely incised fur and gold eyes. The panels are reserved against a silver-inlaid ground of various brocade patterns, above stylized waves and dew drops at the foot, and below foliate scroll and chrysanthemum flowerheads to the shoulder, finely engraved clouds to the neck, and a silver-inlaid key-fret band around the rim. HEIGHT 16 cmWEIGHT 467 gCondition: Very good condition with minor wear and few tiny nicks.Provenance: From a private collection in southern Germany, acquired before 2007.The present vases are decorated in the manner of the famous Komai workshop of Kyoto. The Komai workshop is believed to have been founded in 1841, but it was only when Komai Otojiro I became its head, in 1865, that the company began to make the wares for which they were to become so famous. The workshop, under his leadership specialized in intricate inlaid work of gold and silver into iron. In a promotional brochure of about 1915 his son, Komai Otojiro II (his father having retired in 1906) called his workshop the ‘pioneer of damascene work’ and describes the process of the lacquering of the characteristic black ground, which required kiln firing and burnishing. The Komai style developed with an increasingly pictorial central motif on a background of both geometric patterns and free illustrations of nature, life, and landscapes with elaborate repeating borders. Most of these central motifs illustrate stories from Japanese history or mythology, and the Komai family retains a number of design books in which can be found drawings for many of their works.