1993.86.16.A-B.FA Jar and cover

This jar was exhibited in Glasgow in 1911. The catalogue from that exhibition states that Hayashi Kodenji used fifty-one different colors of enamel to create the design and took almost six months to complete the piece.

Kodenji was responsible for developing overseas markets for cloisonné. Aware that copper, the base metal of his objects, was restricted by law from export, he disguised himself as a silk merchant and hid his cloisonné wares in cocoon baskets. Carrying these baskets suspended from the ends of poles, he walked five hundred miles from his workshop to the port of Yokohama. There, he not only sold his wares to foreigners but also learned of their tastes.

Kodenji_Hayashi (Meiji period metalworker): DMA

Japan (nation): TGN: 1000120

cloisonné: AAT: 300053778

enamel (fused coating): AAT: 300014910

metalworking: AAT: 300053946

wood (plant material): AAT: 300011914

Meiji: AAT: 300018567

birds (motifs): AAT: 300375751

leaves (plant components): AAT: 300400479

trees (plants): AAT: 300132410

April, 19 1912: offered for sale by artist through Messrs Glendining and Co., Limited, Glasgow, as lot 46 [1]

By 1991: The John R. Young Collection [2]

1993: Dallas Museum of Art Foundation for the Arts, The John R. Young Collection, gift of M. Frances and John R. Young [3]

The main source for this provenance is the object summary dated July 25, 1995, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records object file. Exceptions and supporting documentation are noted. 

[1], [2] See Oliver Impey and Malcom Fairley, The Dragon King of the Sea: Japanese decorative art of the Meiji period from the John R. Young Collection (Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, 1991), 46. 

[3] The Foundation for the Arts is a non-profit corporation created as a title-holding entity to serve the people of Dallas but to operate independently of the City. The Dallas Museum of Art (at its own cost) is responsible for the care, storage, insurance, conservation and maintenance of the collection, and agrees to maintain the highest museum standards in the management and handling of the Foundation’s collection. The title to all works of art purchased or otherwise acquired by the Foundation for the Arts is retained by the Foundation.

UMO: 13315198

The Decorative Arts of Meiji Japan: The John R. Young Collection 

Apply to objects where number equals 1993.86.16.A-B.FA