Rain at Ushibori

Kawase Hasui

Showa period (1926-1989), November 1929

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A Japanese Room and Bed on the Floor, Keystone View Company, Underwood & Underwood Publishers, glass
Standing figure of the Buddha carved from fine-grained dark blue/gray limestone. Simply attired in the outer robe of a monk covering both shoulders. Drapery cascades over shoulders, clinging to the figure beneath, reflecting the Gupta style influence on Chinese Buddhist art. Considerable traces of pigment remain. Comes in two pieces, the Buddha statue and a lotus-form base into which it sits.
Blue-Glazed Pear-Shaped (Yuhuchun) Bottle with Flared Silver Repaired Mouth, Vietnam, glazed stoneware with cobalt blue oxide underglaze and silver
Ku-000. A small piece, yet one that has one of the master silversmith’s particularly fine elephants, outfitted in decorated caparison, as it would have been for a durbar. There were grand durbars in Delhi in 1903 and 1911—the latter of which, the only one attended by a reigning monarch, George V, was called, at the time, “the greatest spectacle the world has ever seen” and referred to later as “the last hurrah of the raj.” (A durbar was a highly choreographed official court parade, complete with elaborately uniformed soldiers marching and camels and elephants bedecked in jeweled bridles and blankets.) One side of this card case is ornamented by the elephant, against a foliate background, while the other side bears a cartouche engraved “M.H.” Referencing either one of the durbars would have made this piece a fashionable accessory in which a gentleman of the raj could carry his calling cards.