For sale are these two Meiji period Japanese silver and enamel coffee sized spoons.  Each spoon with different landscape design  that is  a masterpiece of silver and enamel work. The left spoon conveys a  classic Japanese image of a bridge over a pond or stream in a Japanese garden/park.  The second spoon depicts a building, probably a restaurant.

The spoons are unmarked but carry all the characteristics of the renowned Japanese maker Sanju Saku.  Whilst both spoons are unmarked each carries to the bowl a tiny plaque carrying Japanese writing.  This has proven hard to translate but the writing on the right hand spoon with the red enamel house would appear to be convey a joke play on sounds between English and Japanese that would imply the word “turtle”.  A turtle is in turn the maker’s mark of Sanju Saku.  The spoons are in very good condition with minor enamel losses and no restoration. The detailing is really outstanding.

Sanju Saku was one of Japan’s leading silversmiths, based in Yokahama, making and retailing silver with enamels to this style c 1880-1920.

Price: Sold

Maker: Sanju Saku (attrib)

Designer: Sanju Saku (attrib)

Date: Meiji c 1900

Marks: Unmarked

Material: Sterling Silver, enamel

Condition: Very good, small enamel losses

Size: 12.75 cm long

Weight: 0.5 oz, 14 grams each