This just goes to show the hazards of being unfamiliar with artistic iconography from another part of the world, as an online auction recently listed one of these clasps as a "morning glory."
Duh! Of course!
It seems to be an especial favorite of Japanese artists, whose rendering seems more typically to match that of the clasp - here's an example of a set of lovely Fitz and Floyd plates featuring the morning glory motif:
![]() |
Courtesy of eBay vendor maggie-magnolia |
The clasp typically seems to be a machine-stamped design, but here's an example featuring an actual hand-wired cloisonne box clasp:
Sold on eBay for $15 by eBay vendor vickysdesign917, who offers many other nice things at what seem like similarly affordable prices. |
For comparison purposes, here are examples of cloisonne morning glories in Chinese and Japanese work:
Could this clasp design possibly be of Japanese, rather than Chinese, inspiration?
Puzzling evidence...
Update - Chinese morning glories with JingFa clouds in a very pretty design:
![]() |
Chinese |
![]() |
Japanese |
Puzzling evidence...
Update - Chinese morning glories with JingFa clouds in a very pretty design:
Courtesy of eBay vendor spikesstuff44 |