Featured Japanese silver tea dishes

Howdy,

You guys ever seen anything like this before? I inherited it from my grandparents.
They lived in Japan for a number of years after the war. Took it to an antiques place, but they didn't seem to know much. Pretty much said thay they're for holding tea, and it's unusual that they're made from 999 percent silver.
There is a character on the spoon, probably just means silver? There's a stamp as well, but unfortunately it was only half applied.

Appreciate any info.

 

Nothing unusual about Japanese silver being marked 999 or 1000.

 

Confirmed they didn't know much. Heh. Thanks for the reply.

 

This poor thing needs cleaning desperately!!!

It will be gorgeous when cleaned up!

 

I would approach polishing very cautiously. Many Japanese pieces typically mixed metal alloys and applied chemical patinas, for deliberate tonal differences. I believe that is what you have here. https://www.smpub.com/ubb/Forum15/HTML/000370.html

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Gorgeous pieces and remarkable theyve stayed together.

 

Beautiful set! Looks like gold was applied or inlaid for the birds, flowers, and other areas. You don’t want to rub that off! Would this be known as “damascene”?

I’ve found recently that Korea is also fond of using .999 silver.

 

Photos are too dark and no photos of the underside of the lids.It doesn't appears to be Japanese damascene/nunome zogan,but could be one of the other zogan inlay techniques.

https://galleryjapan.com/locale/en_US/technique/metalwork/40307/