Japanese miniature?

[zilverik]

Hi,

This small pot with cover has no hallmarks at all. There is a cut-card-technique emblem on it. Is this a miniature? Is it Japanese?

Regards,

Zilverik

[davidross]

Hard to say if this is a miniature without any dimensions, but this form certainly looks very much like an incense burner for the Buddhist family altar found in many Japanese homes. These are typically the size of a large teacup or small bowl. The small hollow ball on the lid, attached by a pin, rotates, allowing the fingers to gingerly pick it up without burning them. The same clever design is also quite common on Japanese iron kettles. Usually, the base is filled with fine ash and sticks of incense are stuck down into the ash through the grating. The ball feet on the bottom raise the burner enough to keep the intense heat of the incense from scorching the surface beneath.

Just a layman's observation, but a piece of this workmanship looks rather pedestrian, something for the middle classes of ca 1890-1920, and therefore it is probably silvered bronze or brass. The vast majority of Japanese incense burners are ceramic or bronze, as the incense burns very hot and leaves behind ugly scorch marks that are hard to scrub away and could (I imagine) damage sterling silver if left unattended. A pure silver incense burner would have been impractical and rather ostentatious, and almost definitely marked "pure silver" (jungin). A pure silver piece would most likely have been either left completely undecorated (an understated "Zen" taste) or handcarved with a landscape scene by a master whose signature would have enhanced the piece's price tag.

[zilverik]

Hi,

Thank you davidross for your response.
The dimensions are shown in the picture: only a few cm. The small ball on the lid rotares and there are 3 ball feet on the bottom. Yet, i doubt that the purpose is that it is to use. It is to small for that. It is not made of silvered bronze, but pure silver (tested). It isn't signed.

Regards,

Zilverik

[davidross]

My apologies, I was too closely focussed on the first photo, and could not determine whether the ruler was cm or inches. Now I see that in the second photo, the ruler has cm on one side and inches on the other.

I believe that your diminutive incense burner is not a miniature per se, but was made to accompany a zushi (traveling or portable Buddhist altar) and to burn a powdered or crystallized form of incense rather than long thin incense sticks. These altars could themselves be quite small (only 5-6 cm high) but most were around 30 cm high. A netsearch for "zushi" should bring up some good images.

Your piece surely dates from the 19th century, when zushi were still common (and Japanese silver often unmarked). From the stylized butterfly, I would hazard a guess at 1850-1880, perhaps a decade or two earlier, but someone who could inspect the piece might have a clearer idea.

Kind regards
DR

[zilverik]

Hi davidross,

Thank you very much! It never crosses my mind that it could be a "traveling" object. Now I understand.

Regards,

Zilverik