Pair of te-aburi or hand-warming braziers in rounded forms with pierce-work lids. Of colored kanshitsu or dry lacquer, the lids of hammered sentoku or yellow bronze, the liners of hammered copper. Each signed on the interior base (below the liner) inside a circular reserve: Kan (Hiki Ikkan XIV, 1894 – 1977). Late Taisho – early Showa era, circa 1920 – 1930.

With the tomobako or original box, inscribed on the exterior of the lid: Kanshitsu Te-aburi, Ittsui or Dry Lacquer Hand-warming Braziers, A Pair; then signed in an oval reserve: Hiki Ikkan.

A Kyoto lacquer lineage, the Ikkan family is one of the senke jusshoku or ten craft families serving the Sen lineage of tea masters.

These elegant braziers playfully fool the eye with the appearance of Bizen stoneware. The surfaces cloud in color from buff red to brown, unevenly smooth and textured from the kiln’s fire.