A WRITING-BOX

SIGNED MOCHIZUKI HANZAN, EDO PERIOD (18TH CENTURY)

Details

A WRITING-BOX
Signed Mochizuki Hanzan, Edo Period (18th Century)
With flush-fitting lid, the outside of unlacquered wood encrusted in horn, ivory, shell and gold and red takamaki-e with a terrapin on a lotus leaf by a seed-pod, an unopened lotus leaf and a lotus flower, the rounded bevelled edge of the lid covered in plain gold lacquer, one lotus leaf extended onto two sides of the box, the base and all the inside surfaces covered in black lacquer with sparse gold flakes, the inkstone with a gold-lacquered rim set in the centre of the box between two lead risers, the etched copper water-dropper in the form of an abalone shell set into a two-tier base of the same metal, the inside of the lid signed in gold lacquer at the lower left-hand corner Mochizuki with a square red lacquer seal Hanzan, slight old wear to the outside
10 1/4 x 7 1/8 x 2 3/8 in. (26 x 18.1 x 6cm.)

Lot Essay

This box carries a Tomkinson Collection label numbered 716, but was not published in Gilbertson's 1898 catalogue1. Mochizuki Hanzan, the principal follower of Ogawa Haritsu or Ritsuo (1663-1747), is thought to have been active in the mid-eighteenth century. He continued his master's style of inlay in strongly contrasting materials, often on a plain wood ground; this is one of his boldest designs.

1 Edward Gilbertson and others, A Japanese Collection Made by Michael Tomkinson (London, 1898).

More from Japanese Art and Design

View All