Details
A LACQUER FOUR-CASE INRO WITH MATCHING LACQUER HAKO-NETSUKE
JAPAN, MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY), EACH SIGNED ZESHIN (SHIBATA ZESHIN; 1807-1891)
The inro with a rounded rectangular body and a dark-green seido-nuri ground lacquered in aokin, gold and iro-e takamaki-e, and hiramaki-e with details of inlaid aogai (shell), keuchi and kirikane depicting two itomari (silk brocade balls), executed in a variety of textures, lying over pine needles and clumps of dandelions, the design continuing on the reverse with a bamboo hanaike (flower vase) lying beside more dandelions, the compartments and risers of gold nashiji, the shoulders gold fundame, signed in scratched characters on the base Zeshin, with an amber ojime; the hako-netsuke similarly lacquered in gold takamaki-e and inlaid aogai with assorted takaramono (auspicious objects) including a tsuchi (Daikoku's magic mallet), fundo (weight), two tama (wish-granting jewel) and a kakuregasa ('invisible straw hat') and finely-engraved branches of coral resting against each other, signed in scratched characters on the base Zeshin.
3 1⁄8 in. (8 cm.) high
Provenance
V. E. Blad Collection, purchased at Sotheby's, London, 6 May, 1969.
Wrangham Collection, no. 904, with original collector's label.
Literature
INRO: An exhibition of Japanese Inro from the collection of E.A. Wrangham, exhibition catalogue, Oxford, 1972, p.33, cat. no. 59 (ill.)
Robert Schaap (ed.), Meiji Japanese art in transition, the Haags Gemeentemuseum, Society for Japanese Arts and Crafts, Leiden, The Netherlands, 1987, p.114, no.181 (ill.)
Exhibited
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum, INRO: An exhibition of Japanese Inro from the collection of E.A. Wrangham, 9 October - 4 November 1972.
The Hague, The Netherlands, Meiji Japanese Art in Transition, 21 March - 24 May 1987.
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
