Nephrite Embellished Bottle

Dear Adrian,

That example is even better, you are 100% correct. But they are both from the Tsuda Family. To put it simply, other than Tsuda, only one workshop was doing this type of work, for two reasons.
1. there was not all that much demand
2. while we think that since China and Japan were quite close to each other culturally and geographically, so that there should have been a lot of close economic relations; from the Japanese occupation of Manchuria in 1931 till the Tsuda family stopped producing these embellished bottles when their last market, the American one, stopped buying Japanese goods in late 1941, there were 'problems'.

And many Japanese looked down on Chinese between 1911 and 1940 (and later), and refused to produce Chinese-style works (because there is no 'empty space' for the design to 'breathe'). And many Chinese looked down on the Japanese, of course.

Interestingly, the Chinese on Taiwan [which was occupied by Japan in 1895, and 'returned' to China in 1945], were well treated by the Japanese for the whole of their colonial occupation. And to this day, Taiwanese Han Chinese who've been on the island for generations [as opposed to the vast majority of Han Chinese, who are 'transplanted Mainlanders'], are very pro-Japanese, and anti-PRC/CCP.

Best,
Joey

Quote from: forestman on January 28, 2017, 02:59:39 pm

Dear Joey,

If you access the link below you can double click on the main picture to enlarge it. The leaves on that Tsuda family bottle seem to be rendered with more detail than on Toni-Lee's bottle where the leaves seem to be formed with a single brush stroke and of a single colour. The leaves on this other bottle have an extra line in a different colour making them more 3 dimensional.

https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/chiswick-auctions/catalogue-id-srchis10143/lot-d771c5a9-e21d-410b-bf36-a4e501165a26

However, as you say, the Tsuda family were working in times where financial gain might outweigh artistic integrity.

Regards, Adrian.