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This vase has been in my family for a long time. I don't know anything about it, however. Unfortunately, the bottom is gone, likely because at one time it was cut out to make this into a lamp, but it is no longer used as a lamp.

Your enameled bronze champlevé vase with missing base probably is Japanese, in my opinion, although its decoration does resemble the Chinese style. Most of the examples I've seen, including those that had never been lamped, had rather thin bases that were lightly soldered in place and could easily be knocked out for lamp conversion. Some looked to date around the late 19th-early 20th century, but I also recently spotted a piece that looked equally old but with bottom in place with a mark of "C.P.O." (Central Purchasing Office. This was a U.S. Military organization that seems to have been active in Japan from the end of World War II through occupation period in Japan. It's mission was to acquire Japanese-made products for sale in American military exchanges.

This is all a long way of saying that your vase could have been made anywhere from about 1900 to the mid-1950s.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Thank you, Bill H. Very interesting; I had no idea this vase was Japanese, not Chinese. And thanks for pointing out it is bronze champleve.
Steve

I just did a blog post with pictures of Japanese cloisonne and champleve pieces that appear in 1933 and 1901 catalog pages.
Seems to confirm Bill's observations. They show up on eBay all the time, must have been a popular thing to own.

URL Title :N. Shure Co., Chicago, Japanese Cloisonne Vases

I'm much obliged to you for sharing this information with us.
Best regards,
Bill H.

Thanks, Beadiste. I looked at the photos on your blog. Although the vases in the photos were not identical to my vase, I can certainly see the strong similarities. And it is nice to know about your blog.
Steve

I dropped by the shop where I'd seen the CPO vase, found it marked half-off so bought it for my archival collection. Here are a couple of pictures.

The CPO item is similar to Steve's in the motif and other characteristics that I associate with later Japanese champlevé vases of this type. They all appear to be fabricated of several pieces that are soldered together. Parts that were put together with acid-based solder show traces of it as they age through localized accumulations of light green or gray patina where the acid was present.

Manufacturing seams are present in some of the fret-type motifs, such as seen in Steve's final photo above, where there is a mismatch in the lozenge fret at its overlaps. This would not be an issue in an antique metal piece cast by the lost-wax (cire perdue) process, which involves creating a wax sculpture in the round to make a mold.

As mentioned earlier, the bases tend to be thin and often are spot-soldered to facilitate easy removal for lamp conversion.

Japanese metal castings of any age almost always seem to have an artificial patina or patinas, the creation of which colors on metal has become much an art form.

Best regards,

Bill H.

Bill, thank you for sharing the photos of the champleve vase you just purchased; I was especially interested to see the bottom, since the bottom is missing from mine.
Steve

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