Alexis Falize

Exhibited by Wartski

Material Gold and enamel

Dimensions 5.3 x 3 cm

Place of Creation Paris

Status Vetted

About the Work

the enamels by Antoine Tard, the oval cover decorated with two vividly coloured pheasants perched on a cherry tree branch against a turquoise enamelled ground, the reverse depicting a Japanese theatrical mask of a male figure bearing a moustache and beard, against a dark enamelled ground.

This particular depiction of pheasants appears to be inspired from the Japanese encyclopedia, Kinmo zui, Zo-Bo-kin Mo Dzu, published in 1789. The Japanese mask derives directly from an example reproduced in Katsushika Hokusai’s Manga, Vol II, p.16. 1999, p.105, where sixteen different Japanese masks are reproduced.

Alexis Falize displayed a large number of his cloisonné enamelled works at the Union Centrale des Beaux-Arts appliqués à l’Industrie in 1869, and amongst his pieces was a locket with an identical scene on the front cover, illustrated in Falize: A dynasty of jewelers, Katherine Purcell, 1999, p.105.

Another jewel from that display featuring an identical mask on its reverse is also included, Ibid, p.202.

The Musée d’Orsay holds a similar cloisonné enamelled locket by Falize with an identical mask featured on the reverse of its cover. The motif was amongst the boldest and most hauntingto be used in Falize’s Japanese-inspired repertoire.

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