A LARGE AND IMPORTANT NANBAN LACQUER CHEST

MOMOYAMA PERIOD (LATE 16TH CENTURY)

Details

A LARGE AND IMPORTANT NANBAN LACQUER CHEST
Momoyama Period (Late 16th Century)
Of kamaboko form with domed lid and three drawers, the decoration of the lid divided into five panels separated by bands of geometric shell inlay arranged around bronze studs, each panel consisting of a cartouche within a ground of crushed shell mosaic or geometric lacquer and shell design, the cartouches bordered by a band of shell and decorated in gold and red hiramaki-e and shell with, respectively, ho-o [phoenixes] and paulownia trees, tigers and cherry trees, ho-o and camellia trees, a shishi [lion-like creature of Chinese origin] and maple, and long-tailed birds and orange trees, the front and sides with nine similar panels including Chinese bellflower, turtles, a deer, an ox and a cockerel, the drawer-fronts and the back of the chest with simpler floral designs, the interior with cranes and clouds in gold and silver hiramaki-e, engraved copper fittings, old wear and damage, some shell missing, with an 18th -century black lacquer stand in the Nanban manner
55.5/8 x 25.1/8 x 22in. (141.2 x 63.7 x 57.2cm.)

Lot Essay

Among the recorded Momoyama-period export trunks with drawers are a smaller example with two drawers in the Jos Lico collection, Lisbon, and another with three drawers and roughly the same dimensions (63.8 x 143.2 x 52cm.) as this piece that was formerly in London and is now in a private Japanese collection [see 1 below]. However, both of these other trunks are decorated in the all-over shell inlay style also seen in the famous Rushbrooke Hall trunk now in the Victoria and Albert Museum [see 2 below]. The present lot is believed to be the largest known example of a Nanban trunk with drawers, decorated in the more usual style of hiramaki-e panels within geometric borders.

1 Nanban Bunkakan, Osaka and Muses Royaux d'Art de d'Histoire, Brussels, Art Namban, Les Portugais au Japon (Nambankunst, Portugezen in Japan) [Nanban art: the Portuguese in Japan] (Brussels, 1989), no. 68; Kyoto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan [Kyoto National Museum], Makie, shikkoku to ogon no Nihonbi [The beauty of black and gold Japanese lacquer] (Kyoto, 1995), no. 147.

2 Joe Earle (ed.), The Toshiba Gallery: Japanese Art and Design [in the Victoria and Albert Museum] (London, 1986), no. 149.

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