Musashiya Yokohama

Japanese Meiji period sterling silver wine jug.

• Lidded wine jug of classical shape, mounted with a decorated finial and unusual scroll handle and applied with a pierced collar depicting flying birds amongst flowers, standing on a domed foot chased with acanthus leaves. 
• Signed with Japanese characters and makers mark S.M. for The Musashiya Company.

The Musashiya Company was created by Ozeki Yahei and under the aegis of his son Sadajiro, became perhaps the most successful of the concerns selling high-quality decorative art during the Meiji period. Sadajiro’s openness to collaborate with enterprises such as Liberty of London enthused him to work with some of the finest Japanese artists and artisans. Many of these items happened to be spoons, but spoons that were each a work of art. Some he marked Musashiya, while others he decided to mark with the initials S.M., the latter created out of Sadajiro and Musashiya. Many of these spoons were actually creations of some of Japan’s most notable artisans exclusively at the Musashiya workshops. For more information, please read Chinese Export Silver: The Yokohama Conundrum by Adrien Von Ferscht.