A THREE-CASE INRO

SIGNED SHUNSHO, EDO PERIOD (MID-19TH CENTURY)

Details

A THREE-CASE INRO
Signed Shunsho, Edo Period (Mid-19th Century)
With brownish-black ground; decoration in silver, gold and polychrome togidashi-e; details in gold and green hiramaki-e; compartments brown lacquer; risers gold and polychrome lacquer, foil mosaic and shell; shoulders and rims gold lacquer; signed underneath in gold hiramaki-e Shunsho, with a red lacquer seal Kagemasa

An uguisu [bush warbler] looks up as it perches on the trunk of an ancient plum tree, the cracks in the bark of the old tree boldly delineated; on the reverse plum blossoms bursting out from their plump buds
3.1/8in. (8.1cm.) long

Provenance

Dawson Collection

Literature

Eskenazi Limited, Japanese Netsuke, Ojime and Inro from the Dawson Collection (London, 1997), cat. no. 136

Lot Essay

The uguisu, a harbinger of spring, is here associated with plum, the first plant to flower at the New Year.

The Shunsho line, founded by the book-illustrator and lacquerer Yamamoto Shunsho (1610-82) and maintained until the present century, is especially celebrated for the quality of its work in togidashi-e.

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