Pair of Imperial presentation vases in baluster form, one ornamented with designs of pine trees on a beach and the other with a flotilla of sailing boats on the Inland Sea, both inlaid in relief with the Imperial chrysanthemum crest on the necks. Of hammered silver, inlaid in shakudo, shibuichi, silver and gold in flush, raised and kiri-bame (or completely pierced, difficult window inlays) techniques. By Shimizu Nanzen (1875 – 1948). Taisho era, circa 1912 – 1926.

With the original, period wood storage boxes.

Shimizu Nanzan entered the Tokyo School of Fine Arts the year after its establishment. After finishing the post-graduate department in metal carving in 1902, he became a teacher at the Kagawa Prefectural Polytechnic School in 1909. In 1915, at the age of 40, he resigned. Leaving his wife and children at the family home, he embarked on a pilgrimage of the 88 holy places in Shikoku and afterwards immersed himself in the study of ancient art in Nara for about a year and a half. After working on his own for 4 years, he served as professor of metal carving at the Tokyo School of Fine Arts from 1919 until 1945. He was appointed a Teishitsu Gigei-in or Imperial Court Artist in 1934. His metal art is in the collection of the Tokyo University of Fine Arts and Music Art Museum, and in the Imperial Collections.

From the opening of the applied art section of the Teiten, Shimizu Nanzan participated in almost every exhibition between 1927 and 1944: the 8th – 15th Teiten in 1927 – 1934, the Bunten Kansaten in 1936, the 1st – 3rd Shin-Bunten in 1937 – 1939, the Hoshukuten in 1940, the 4th – 6th Shin-Bunten in 1941 – 1943, and the Senji Tokubetsuten or Special Wartime Exhibition in 1944. After the Pacific War, Nanzan moved to Hiroshima Prefecture, but returned to Tokyo to show at the 2nd – 4th Nitten in 1946 – 1948.

For another example of Shimizu Nanzan’s work, c.f. Selected Masterpieces from the University Art Museum, Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music: Grand Opening Exhibition, page 192 – 193, number 80.