A set of 11 table knives and a set of six silver and gilt spoons


Meiji (1868-1912) or Taisho (1912-1926) era, late 19th/ early 20th centuryThe steel blades set into soft-metal handles worked to imitate plaited bamboo and decorated with birds and flowers, insects, squirrels in a grape vine, and a cormorant fisherman in iro-e takazogan, each with the signature of the designer in a gold reserve, the blades all with an illegible hallmark, in a tooled-leather hinged storage case; the spoons with handles cast with flowering vines in low relief, topped with figures including a geisha in flowing robes, a musician, a maiden balancing a bundle of sticks on her head, and others, highlights in gilt (17) 9 1/2in (24.1cm) long, the knives