Matchbox holder - Kyōgen mask from Japanese Noh theatre. - Copper

Old and rare very fine brass matchbox holder from the very early 20th century. This is certainly European work, more precisely French. This match holder in the shape of a mask draws inspiration from Kyogen myths and masks of ancient Japanese Noh theater. It fully belongs to the Art Nouveau movement; indeed, the great sculptors of the French school and the leading glass masters of the period, bearers of this movement, developed a passion for Japan, a distant and exotic country at the time (for example Baccarat, Daum, Emile Gallé for glassmakers and Jean Carriès, Alexandre Charpentier, Gabriel Viardot for sculptors). A Kyōgen mask is a wooden carved accessory used in Kyōgen, the traditional Japanese theater of farce and comedy, which traditionally serves as a comic interlude to Noh theater. Noh is a major form of lyrical and choreographic drama in traditional Japanese theater dating back to the 14th century. It is one of the oldest performing arts in the world still regularly practiced today, inscribed as an intangible cultural heritage of humanity by UNESCO. In good condition. Time has left its mark. There are a few traces of oxidation and it no longer closes, but the very fine and tiny hinge is flawless. On the back of the mask there is a finely hand-chiseled landscape design, of course japonisant, with a wooden bridge and bamboo in the foreground, a lake in the middle ground, and in the third and final plane the side of a mountain and clouds in the sky. Very beautiful and rare piece to seize. Dimensions: 6 x 4.3 x 1.5 cm Weight: 26 grams. Attention collectors and enthusiasts. Fast and careful shipping.

Estimate:£125.46

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