Arthur and Bond, Yokohama
Punch Bowl, c. 1890

Cast and hammered silver McMullen Museum of Art, Boston College

English purveyors of luxury goods, Arthur and Bond were based in Yokohama, Japan’s main trade port. Their offerings were purchased by foreign visitors as well as exported to Western markets. The company excelled at complex silver pieces that they designed and had executed by Japanese artists. Their most famous commission was the Liscum Bowl (see photo) cast as a memorial for Col. Emerson H. Liscum, an American commander killed in Tientsin, China, in 1900 during the Boxer Rebellion.

The McMullen’s punch bowl has similar fantastic coiling dragons cavorting above a roiling sea. Small hooks under the cascading fringe would have held cups at the ready. The drama of the punch bowl’s shape, height, and dynamic dragon decoration clearly targeted foreign collectors in thrall to Victorian taste.