Japanese bronze rooster and hen signed Mitani Tokusei Meiji period

Japanese bronze group of a rooster and hen naturalistically modelled, the male bird with the head lowered and the female looking up. The feather work finely engraved and carved with rich brown copper patination in shakudo and gold with bright red patinated combs, the long tail highlighted in shakudo, signed in a rectangular reserve Mitani Tokusei 美谷特製 (especially made by Mitani) on a wood base carved with bundles of wheat sheaves on the ground, Meiji period (1868-1912).

For bronze works by the same artist see: 'The Golden Age of Japanese Okimono, the Dr. Kanter Collection' by Laura Bordignon, ACC Woodbridge 2010, Metalwork no. 244, 245, 246.

Mitani, Frederick Baekeland 'Imperial Japan, the art of the Meiji Era', Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, New York 1980. Catalogue no. 106.

Size of rooster without wood base: H 16cm (6.29" in.) x W 28.5cm (11.22" in.)
Size of hen without wood base: H 14.5cm (5.70" in.) x D 14cm (5.51" in.)

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