Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th century Of baluster form applied with stylized dragon-shaped handles and elaborately worked in silver wire and colored enamels with a band of chrysanthemum scroll encircling the shoulder with shaped roundels containing confronted dragons and butterflies, all above formal lappet panels of phoenixes in flight and coiling vines, punctuated with smaller lappets of stylized beast masks, all reserved against a light brown ground, the neck decorated with auspicious symbols on a black ground above a band of interlocking reserves with flower blossoms, the foot with floral reserves, the cover decorated with roundels of floral and geometric design on clouds against a black ground, the bulbous finial with chrysanthemum and cherry-blossom scroll 21 1/4in (53cm) high