Decorative ornament - Annosuke - Miniature Copper Kettle - Japan

This miniature copper kettle is a handcrafted piece by the renowned Japanese metalwork artisan Annosuke. The body features a classic relief motif—"magpies bringing joyful news"—with a gnarled plum branch winding around the vessel, adorned with blossoms in full bloom and a magpie perched upon a bough. The spout and handle are sculpted in a biomimetic style to resemble aged plum-tree trunks; their intricate, textured knots and branches appear remarkably lifelike, integrating seamlessly with the ornamentation on the kettle’s body to create a perfectly unified design. The base bears the square, seal-script maker’s mark of Annosuke.

"Annosuke" is the hereditary title held by the masters of Ryūbundō, a renowned metal-casting lineage from Kyoto. Since the Edo period, Ryūbundō has stood as a premier Japanese metal-casting workshop. Each successive Annosuke has been a master craftsman of the highest caliber, deeply dedicated to the art of lost-wax casting and celebrated for creating tea ceremony implements and small-scale metal sculptures.