pre-1870 and post-1870 beads?
Re: These are a few of my favorite things: -- Frederick II Post Reply Edit Forum Where am I?
Posted by: beadiste Mail author
09/17/2014, 08:42:35

Examining your beads, some display a translucent/transparent green enamel and a better polish. Could these be examples of enamels developed after the German chemist Gottfried Wagener worked with Japanese factories to broaden their enamel repertoire?

from the Victoria & Albert:

... the Ahrens Company in Tokyo. Ahrens was one of many companies set up under the Meiji government’s programme whereby western specialists were invited to help modernise Japan’s existing industries.

The chief technologist of Ahrens, which had exhibited one of Kaisuke’s works at the Vienna Exhibition [1873], was the German chemist Gottfried Wagener who introduced modern European enamelling technology to Japan.

In 1878 Wagener moved to Kyoto where he met the former samurai and cloisonné artist Namikawa Yasuyuki (1845-1927). Yasuyuki began his career around 1868 and worked with the Kyoto Cloisonné Company from 1871 to 1874.


Related link: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/h/history-of-cloisonne-enamels-in-japan-1838-1871/

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