Bidspirit auction | A 20-Piece Maruichi Japanese Eggshell

A 20-Piece Maruichi Japanese Eggshell Porcelain Satsuma Style Tea and Coffee Set This is a 20-piece Japanese eggshell porcelain tea and coffee set produced by the Maruichi workshop, dating from the late Meiji to the early Taisho period. The set is decorated in the Satsuma style with a Thousand Faces or Hundred Arhats motif. The hand-painted scenes across all pieces feature various Rakan and holy figures, each depicted with a distinct golden nimbus, accompanied by a central female figure, likely the Bodhisattva Kannon, and a weaving dragon. The decoration is executed with fine brushwork, extensive burnished gilding, and raised moriage enamel detailing against a background of stylised waves and clouds. The set consists of a teapot with a fitted lid, a twin-handled sugar bowl with a fitted lid, six tea or coffee cups each featuring two figures painted to the interior base, six lobed snack plates or tennis saucers with raised circular wells and finger-hole handles, and six circular side plates. The fine, translucent porcelain body of each piece bears a gilded rectangular cartouche to the base, featuring the Shimazu clan mon (a circle containing a cross) above the characters for Maruichi.