Lot Essay
The extraordinary rarity of the Nagasaki-made lacquerware which was brought to America in 1799-1801 makes it virtually unknown. The unusual American connection with Holland and Japan at this early date is easily explained. For over two centuries, the Dutch East India Company had officially been allowed one ship a year at Nagasaki, to keep a small station on the island of Deshima and to engage in trade for Batavia. With Holland being under French rule during the Napoleonic years, the Batavian Dutch did not dare risk the voyage to Japan past the China Coast, so heavily frequented by the British East India Company. At the same time, they did not wish to give up their yearly contact for fear of losing their exclusive charter altogether. Therefore, the Dutch hired neutral American ships to enter Japan.
These urns are almost identical in design to an urn once owned by Samuel Derby, the captain of the Salem vessel, the Margaret, which visited Nagasaki in 1801. The Derby urn, now in a private collection, is identical in height, inlay and basic design, although the lacquer is cinnamon-colored. The urns in this lot were probably brought to Salem on either the Margaret or the Franklin, another Salem trading vessel which visited Japan in 1799; it is known that both vessels returned to Salem each with twenty-four lacquer knife boxes and urns (C. Copeland, 'Japanese Export Furniture,' The Magazine Antiques, July 1954, pp.50-51). It is possible that these urns were copied from an urn of Salem manufacture that had found its way to Nagasaki, possibly on board either the Margaret or the Franklin. A very similar pair of mahogany and satinwood urns, of English, or more probably American, manufacture, made for the Derby family are now in the collection at Winterthur. There is another similar in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, and a further example belonging to Carl L. Crossman was sold in these Rooms, 23 October 1982, lot 179 (illustrated in C. Crossman, 'Early Japanese Export Ware in Salem,' Hamilton Hall Antiques Show Catalogue, Peabody Museum, 1974, p. 32.)
These urns are almost identical in design to an urn once owned by Samuel Derby, the captain of the Salem vessel, the Margaret, which visited Nagasaki in 1801. The Derby urn, now in a private collection, is identical in height, inlay and basic design, although the lacquer is cinnamon-colored. The urns in this lot were probably brought to Salem on either the Margaret or the Franklin, another Salem trading vessel which visited Japan in 1799; it is known that both vessels returned to Salem each with twenty-four lacquer knife boxes and urns (C. Copeland, 'Japanese Export Furniture,' The Magazine Antiques, July 1954, pp.50-51). It is possible that these urns were copied from an urn of Salem manufacture that had found its way to Nagasaki, possibly on board either the Margaret or the Franklin. A very similar pair of mahogany and satinwood urns, of English, or more probably American, manufacture, made for the Derby family are now in the collection at Winterthur. There is another similar in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, and a further example belonging to Carl L. Crossman was sold in these Rooms, 23 October 1982, lot 179 (illustrated in C. Crossman, 'Early Japanese Export Ware in Salem,' Hamilton Hall Antiques Show Catalogue, Peabody Museum, 1974, p. 32.)