This category of metalwork was thought for many years to be Chinese in origin and became known as Tonkin Ware. However, the view generally held today is that Nagasaki was most probably the place of manufacture, but whether the craftsmen were Chinese or native Japanese remains an unresolved point. These wares probably left Japan through Deshima. The type is now known as Sawasa ware.¹ Examples of this recognisable group are well-represented in the collections of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Victoria and Albert Museum, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. One known example bears a late 17th century date and a cup and saucer in the Metropolitan Museum of Art is dated 1735; it would appear that the manufacture of this ware did not continue past the middle of the 18th century.

The majority of the extant pieces take the form of Dutch originals, such as tobacco boxes, tea sets, cups and saucers, tea kettles and coffee urns, such as this present example. This would point to the Low Countries as the principal source of demand. Although the dominant subject matter was Chinese scenery with trees, pagodas, pavilions, etc., some examples exist depicting Asian versions of Europeans at various pursuits. This same style of zeitmotif appears in late 17th century English and European silver with chinoiserie designs and the earliest hausmaler painting on Meissen porcelains.

In almost all cases, the decorations are executed in shakudo, sometimes in the round, against a gilded ground, frequently in nanako; gilt incised lines against a shakudo ground were also used.

The term Sawasa probably comes from the word suassa which the Dutch used to describe the shakudo alloy as early as 1705. In the publication G. E. Rumphius, D’Amboinsche Rariteitkamer, (Amsterdam, 1705), the author used the word, black suassa, to call shakudo material coming from Tonkin and Japan.²

1. For more information on Sawasa ware, see Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Sawasa: Japanese Export Art in Black and Gold 1650-1800, (Amsterdam, 1998).
2. For more information on the word suassa used in the publication by Rumphius, go to the Legermuseum website:
http:/www.collectie.legermuseum.nl/str.visser.nl/str.visser.nl/i000400.html.