English Ware from the Victorian Era During the Meiji period (1868-1912), the Japanese government dispatched emissaries to Europe to acquire the most advanced Western industrial technologies and actively amass European works of applied art. However, the ship carrying the acquisitions from the 1873 Vienna World’s Fair sank off the coast of the Izu Peninsula. Hearing of this, Sir Philip Cunliffe-Owen, director of the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum), presented the Japanese government with decorative art objects from across Europe. Thereafter, in 1876, the industrial designer Christopher Dresser (1834-1904) came to Japan with gifts of European porcelain, such as Minton, Doulton, and Royal Worcester. The Japanese government warmly received Dresser, who traveled throughout the country and, after returning to England, incorporated the observations he made in Japan in his ceramic production. Portrait plate with Marie of Bayern in gold paint and overglaze enamels Germany (?) Tokyo National Museum