Antique Japanese  Ryubundo(龍文堂） Scholar Sculpture  Tetsubin (Tea Kettle). Meiji period.

Cast in iron and of slightly tapered cylindrical form with a bend spout, the body decorated in an oriental scholar and poetry.

The handle is decorated with dragons inlaid with gold and silver. Two hanging rings on both sides are designed as sycamore leaves.

 The bronze cover finished with a flower-bud finial and signed on the underside "Ryubundo zo 龍文堂造”. 

Please note the button on the bronze cover was missing. But I think it's not hard to fix. There is no doubt that this is a quality iron kettle with literatic tastes.

 Ryubundo is one of the leading studios in the Japanese Metalware industry. With many classic and significant masterpieces passing down through generations, Ryubundo kettles are produced with the highest standard of craftsmanship, and with precious materials. From the founder of the studio, Shiho Ryubun (1735-1798), every successive director of the studio Ryubundo were talented not only in metalworking, but also in painting, calligraphy, and poetry. Therefore, the aristocratic, literatic tastes are the main features of Ryubundo tetsubin. From the middle of the Edo Period (1603-1868) when tea culture was popular everywhere in Japan, the development of Ryubundo reached a boom, and this boom continued to the latter Meiji Period (1868~1912). The studio was mentioned in the ironic novel by the famous Japanese writer Natsume Soseki, I Am a Cat. The sentence writes ? Those people living a luxurious life would lose their sleep if they could not hear the sound made by the lid of Ryubundo iron kettles when water is boiling. 

Height including the handle:9 in or 23 cm

Width:6.5 in or 16.5 cm

Weight: 2 kg

Please ask all questions prior to buy.

Ship in the US only.