Cloisonné enamel rectangular tray

Japan, Showa period, 1926 – 1989

Length: 11 3/4 inches, 30 cm

Width: 8 1/4 inches, 21 cm

Height: 1 1/4 inches, 3 cm

A cloisonné enamel tray of rectangular outline, the four sides rising gently upwards from the rectangular foot. The interior is enamelled with regular red, white and black enamel stripes, forming a four-corner pattern. The exterior is covered in plain dark blue enamel.

It is highly unusual to find a rectangular tray in Japanese cloisonné enamel, the majority of forms by far are vases and boxes, and trays tend to be circular. A rectangular example signed Namikawe Sosuke is in the Stephen W. Fisher collection in Baltimore.1

1. Mintz, R. Japanese Cloisonné Enamels, Walter Art Museum, Baltimore, 2010, pp. 70-1