Posted 11 years ago
kyratango
(439 items)
This is a large tray, wood with raised lacquer decor,measuring approximately 26¾" in length and 16¼" wide. The edge is just under 2" high. The corners are dovetailed and have bone or ivory fixings.
It has no cracks, perfectly flat.
The owl seems to have glass inlaid eyes.
My research gave me keyaki wood, and taka maki-e lacquer.
I know symbolism is very important in asian culture, specially for luck, fortune or success so I'm astonished by the owl grasping a sparrow!
And I can't identify the plant on last pic...
Waiting for Christie's opinion ;-) but would like to hear about your opinions on the symbols!
![[S11-3-16] Japanese Sword: Mumei Katana in Shirasaya + Tachi Koshirae & Tsunagi](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/jNwAAOSwAiFnOkkw/s-l225.jpg)
![[S11-3-10] Japanese Sword: Kunimune Katana in Koshirae](https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/H7EAAOSwSPRnOeDo/s-l225.jpg)
Maybe lotus leaves?
Thanks Vetraio, It was my first thought, but the flower doesn't match...
Thanks for your love, all!
Spectacular!! email me after you hear from Christie's!
kyratango -- thank you for sharing such beautiful piese, one of the best Japanese inlaid I've seen. This one is Japanese for sure and they have slightly different culture than Chinese. Japanese values honor, fight and valor where chinese values peace, fortune and longevity more. This is a common theme in Japanese inlaid, like owls feeding on sparrow, falcon feeding on duck, and etc.
Keyaki wood, in my opinion, is a accurate word for the material, good research job.
Thanks a lot shrine!
I know nothing in japanese culture, so I'm proud to found the right wood id, and lacker technique.
Thanks a lot too Don, waiting too to hear from Christie's...
Will post new beasts as soon as my fight against loading pics from my phone will be succesful...
XOXO
Thanks all for your loves!
Just heard from Christie's...
They just said not interesting for them to sell, too low value...
But no information about it :-(
Pfft Christies!! No taste! lol
Lol! Thanks Racer for visiting!
Thanks windwalker for loving it much than Christie's did ;-)
Thanks toolate and vintagefran :-)
Really cool! Love the owl!
What a beautyful tray, i love it.
The picture 4 remind me the leaf this plant""Elephant Ears Colocasia Illustris Taro Plant with black leaves and green veins"
ALan
Thanks Vintagelamp for loving my owl tray!
Alan, colocasia has rather similar veined leaves, but still puzzled by the flowers...
Thanks a lot for your input!
Many thanks Caperkid for joining the 23 lovers :-))
well its quite easy , this is actually good , but don,t go the majors because the cut is probably 1000 dollar and they ditch you
A beautiful piece to be sure. Do not fret about the Christies response. Remember, auctioneers are in the cash flow business, not the art or collector business. On the other hand, you may want to try an auction house in Japan, China or Singapore as that will be an entirely different market.
this is a complete misrepresentation and a complete misrepresentation of the functioning of the oriental auction houses
Thank you for your comments, Apostata and Congcu :-)
I realized then (6 years ago, old post!!!) that Christie's and Sotheby's changed their criteria in matter of value... Nothing under 5000€ will get any answer other than not reaching our criteria...
Anyway, I didn't want to sell it, only have an idea of the symbolism\story it tells :-D
Cannot really trust an evaluation by Christies, my lamps were valued at 4000 but just one guy alone offered 40 G. He was a private collector.