Amalgam Gilded Bronze Box

[Baka Gaijin]

Good Afternoon Everyone,

I am researching a charming miniature etched bronze box by Fuji Yoshitoyo with a design by Professor Bisei Unno (Yoshimori) who was granted the title of Imperial Artist “Teishitsu Gigi - In” in 1892.

My question is, What is the correct Japanese term for Amalgam Gilding?

 

[Bugyotsuji]

Amalgam gilding seems to have alternative possibilities like ‘mercury gilding’ or mercury paste gilding, etc. Can we narrow down exactly what it is in English first? Or is this a Japanese process first, to which an English definition has been attached? Which came first?

 

(Added later)

Apparently his unique technique of etched Damascene was known as 

“Fujii zōgan”!

 

[Baka Gaijin]

Good afternoon old Bean

 

The Plot Thickens.........

 

It was Ford's last assistant who described it to me last week as Amalgam Gilding, but he wasn't sure what the name of it was.

 

I know the Ormolou process quite well and wondered if it was the same as that?

 

Ormolou as a process was banned in France in 1830, due to the extreme toxicity of the process, but was still being done here and there until the 1960's.

 

I'll be at the DTI on the Sunday if you are in Town.

 

 

[Geraint]

Dear Malcolm.

 

In the UK the process of amalgam gilding is usually referred to as fire gilding on the basis that the mercury portion of the amalgam is driven off by heating to leave the gold deposit, obviously a dangerous process.  As far as I understand it from the perspective of furniture history the same process is used for ormolu.

I believe that the work on iron usually associated with Komai was in fact nunome zogan involving the application of soft metals to iron relying on the roughened ground to physically key the metals to each other.  I am not able to see exactly what your box is like but the samples I have, one box included, are iron with a gilt interior and the design in nunome zogan on the exterior.  It is possible to see a very slightly raised area where the ground had had the nunome zogan applied.  I have come across work intended to look the same but where the ground has been etched and the resulting surface filled with something black but not metallic thus creating an easier look alike technique.  A magnet test would confirm what the base metal is of course.

I have not come across the term that Piers has found, Fuji zogan, but perhaps that is a reference to the area of production somewhat in the way that we speak of Nagoya mono.  Some years ago my Father in law had a splendid vesta case made in Japan, the iron case inlaid most beautifully in what I would have called takazogan and he had been told by a well known auction house that the work was called obi kirime, which I assumed was 'belt cutting' and referred to the group of works rather than to the specific technique.

 

Hope some of that helps.

 

All the best.

 

P.S.  Enjoy DTI, can't find the green with envy emoji but take it as read.

[Bugyotsuji]

Ah yes, ormolou, that was the other word I was looking for. Hmmmm... 

 

As to the DTI, that weekend the whole world is scheduled to descend upon me demanding attention in different directions. Aaaaarrrrgggghhhh.....

Sadly once again the DTI ends up a no-go. I was also offered a one-off fat-cheque job around that time, but because of visiting relatives I have had to turn it down, and I haven't the heart to tell them!

 

[Geraint]

Ahh Piers!  So near and yet so far!  I hope at least that the visiting relatives make the sacrifice worthwhile.

 

All the best.

[Baka Gaijin]

Good Evening Geraint and Piers,

 

Thank you both for your input and kind words.

 

As regards Nunome Zogan, which was used by Komai Otojiro and his followers, our chap Fuji Yoshitoyo was Kyoto born and bred, only moving to Tokyo later, where he patented a method of etching Bronze and applying an amalgam gilding to his pieces, which is distinctly different to the look of Nunome Zogan.

 

One of the last pieces Ford restored for me was a box by Jomi Eisuke, decorated in Nunome Zogan upon patinated Iron.

 

Please enjoy :

 

 

 

 

The Fuji Yoshitoyo box is Bronze and the subtlety of the etched work far exceeds the flatness of Nunome Zogan on Iron.

 

Similar to this:

 

https://www.lefays.com/en-GB/asian-arts/fujii-yoshitoyo-Japanese-b-1868-komai-style-damascene-box/prod_10121

 

I'll post some Hi Res images next week, which will show the differences.

 

Its a mystery to be sure........