Antique Japanese Vase - Flowers, Birds and Dragons. Oh, my!

Another object that I would love to own is this intricate antique Japanese vase made of silver and ivory inlayed with mother of pearl and abalone shells. It's astounding how much hand work went into this piece. Sculpting and casting of the dragons, molding the silver to fit the ivory body, enamaling and filigree, intricate inlay of mother of pearl. The little bird in flight will have a real companion, a beautiful opaline budgie is earmarked for this painting. 

The very handsome Puck

The base coat and shadows with many more layers to come. For some reason, the green background appears very vivid onscreen, but is more muted in reality.

Let's see how this turns out.