A little past its prime, but still pretty fine –Harrach Japanois

I have a rule, I only buy imperfect when perfect is probably impossible.

When I saw this my heart skipped a beat. This is the kind of thing you never expect to see outside a museum; often such enamelling is a one off and if not, like this example, survivors are often a little worse for wear.

I knew exactly what it was, as there is an identical one in the Harrach book and in the recent exhibition: the label at the Harrach exhibition says:

‘Designed by Joseph Petricek, Japonais design 1890-91. Pale Citrin Glass decorated with black paint and coloured enamels’.

Here in all its glory is a front view, back, side and bottom.

Sadly the black paint (I suspect enamel but they translated it as paint) is largely worn, but other than that it is a great survivor.

Oh and yes of course, I did get it!