As part of our Japanese works of art collection we are delighted to offer this diminutive pair of Meiji Period (1868-1912) enamel vases by the most eminent Nagoya enameller, Hattori Tadasaburo. This small pair of Plique-ą-jour vases (shotai-jippo) are delicately worked in silver wire with numerous overlapping colourful chrysanthemums, each vase applied with silver rims and bases , the bases simply signed Hattori . An increasingly scarce survivor when considering the fragile nature of these works.Literature : Plique a jour literally means ''letting in daylight'', the Japanese technique ( Shotai-Jippo) involved cloisonne artists firing enamel within silver wired cells ( cloisons) not disimilar to cloisonne manufacture except this form was laid upon a temporary copper base, once the enamel had been highly fired the copper base was etched away leaving a translucent enamel stained glass window effect, suspended only by the fine wires between the cloisons. The degree of difficulty is...