A RARE AND MASSIVE JAPANESE SILVER BRONZE OKIMONO BY GENRYUSAI SEIYA

A RARE AND MASSIVE JAPANESE SILVER BRONZE OKIMONO BY GENRYUSAI SEIYA

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

Depicting an impressive cockerel, the bird naturalistically modelled with gilt bronze legs and pupils, the claws and long tail feathers rendered in shakudo, the comb and wattle in red patinated bronze, the details of the plumage rendered in kebori, signed in a rectangular cartouche beneath the long tail Dai Nihon Genryusai Seiya zo (Great Japan, made by Genryusai Seiya), raised on a wood base carved as a rocky outcrop, the bronze 75cm, 89cm overall. (2)

Provenance: an English private collection, the property of a gentleman; purchased in the 1990s from PAN Amsterdam art fair.

See Zacke, Vienna, Asian Art Discoveries Days 1 - Japanese Art, 21st January 2021, lot 13, for another model of a chicken by Seiya measuring 23cm. Also, see Bonhams, London, Meiji Modern Design, 11th June 2003, lot 476 for another tall cockerel signed Masatsune.

Cf. Meiji no Takara, The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Japanese Art, Metalwork, Part II nos.104-5 for two other cockerels by Masatsune. Also, see L Bordignon, The Golden Age of Japanese Okimono, pp.252-3, for another example signed Hanehiroya sei.