This partial service shows a less familiar side of the studio’s output: tableware for drinking sake, tea and coffee, decorated with a lighter touch than its cabinet pieces. As catalogued by Bonhams, it comprises nine sake cups, five tea cups, six coffee cups with matching saucers and nine small plates, the largest about fifteen centimetres in diameter. Each piece is painted in gilt and polychrome enamel with momiji (Japanese maple) or with various flowering plants.
The inclusion of coffee cups and saucers points to the studio’s awareness of Western dining habits, and of a clientele who wanted Japanese decoration on familiar European forms. Each base bears a gilt studio mark. Offered at Bonhams, Asian Decorative Arts, San Francisco, on 20 December 2016, lot 9056. It realised US$3,750 including buyer’s premium, against an estimate of US$1,500–US$2,000.