Object Description
A pair of large Meiji period Satsuma Rouleau vases
Japanese, Late 19th Century
Height 54.5cm, diameter 24cm
These beautiful Satsuma-ware vases were made during the Meiji period, in this distinctive and wonderful style, and in Rouleau vase form. Satsuma vases form an important part of the artistic output of Meiji era Japan, itself a time of huge change, socially, economically, and politically, in Japan, and one in which arts and crafts enjoyed a vast increase in popularity and production.
These particular works feature two scenes, that span the circumference of each vase. One shows a procession of noble women traversing a river in a beautiful landscape, the other shows a group of travellers in a similarly elegant mountainous landscape setting. The images stand above a lower band, and each is mounted with stylised phoenix medallions, and richly decorated necks which bear dragons, phoenixes, and lotus roundels against a leaf scroll ground. They are both beautiful decorative and artistic objects, with elegant and whimsical elements in painted glaze scattered across their finely decorated surfaces.