A WRITING BOX

EDO PERIOD (19TH CENTURY)

細節

A WRITING BOX
Edo Period (19th Century)
A very fine writing-box with overhanging lid, the outside of both box and lid decorated in gold hiramaki-e and takamaki-e, gold and silver foil mosaic and applied silver with two dragon- and ho-o-prowed court barges, one carrying a huge drum, by a rocky shore with cherry-trees and cormorants, the inside of both box and lid covered in fine gold nashiji and decorated in gold hiramaki-e with maple trees, the brush-rack covered in fine gold nashiji, the inkstone with gold-lacquered rim and sides, the circular silver water-dropper decorated in gold hiramaki-e with maple leaves, two plain gold-lacquered brushes with covers
8.1/8x7x1in. (20.1x19x3.8cm.)

來源

Matsudaira Family

拍品專文

The decoration on the outside of this box features a scene from Chapter 24, Kocho [Butterflies], of the eleventh-century novel Genji monogatari [The Tale of Genji] by the court lady Murasaki Shikibu, where Prince Genji and one of his loves plan a boating expedition. Features common to most lacquer depictions of this episode include the two barges, the drum and the cherry-trees. The exceptional finish of this box and highly unusual lacquer decoration suggest that it was made for a particularly important client. For a later twentieth-century example of the same design, see 1 below.

1 Spink & Son Ltd., Japanese Lacquer: Miyabi Transformed (London, 1997), no. 18.