Platinum Maki-e: Autumnscape by Rosui

"AUTUMN LANDSCAPE" BY ROSUI
Platinum, 1930s

Following on Namiki's success with maki-e pen, the founder of Platimum, Nakaya Seisakusho, organized a group of maki-e artists, and Platinums maki-e pens competed sucessfully with those of Namiki and Sailor. The leading Platinum maki-e artist was Rosui-Gyokusendou-Ohara, who was one of the top maki-e artists of the period. Maki-e pens produced by Platinum and Sailor, the third leading Pen maker of Japan, are even less common than those of Namiki.

The Autumn Landscape was one of Rosui's most notable designs. According the author of a leading reference on maki-e pens, this work "is very popular and traded at a high price among the lacquer pens manufactered by the Platinum Pen Co., Ltd. The landscape is seen in a miniature of comparatively plain takamakie. The scarlet tinged leaves are especially beautifully drawn" Tomihiro Murakami, Dunhill Namiki and Laquer Pens, p.38 (Shibunkan 2000).

Takamakie refers to a high relief lacquer technique in which powders are sprinkled over lacquer that has been mixed with a clay or charcoal to create a raised surface. $2500.

References: Tomihiro, supra; Andreas Lambrou: “Fountain Pens Of The World” Classic Pens, 1995, pp378-379, No 11