Lot 168
168
AN UNUSUAL TWO-CASE INRO
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VA… Read more
AN UNUSUAL TWO-CASE INRO

SIGNED JOKASAI, EDO PERIOD (LATE 18TH/19TH CENTURY)

Details
AN UNUSUAL TWO-CASE INRO
Signed Jokasai, Edo Period (Late 18th/19th Century)
Black lacquer ground; decoration in gold, aokin, silver and coloured hiramaki-e and takamaki-e and gold flakes; compartments and risers gold nashiji; shoulders and rims gold lacquer; signed in gold hiramaki-e underneath Jokasai; ivory ojime

A small boy admiring a kage-e [shadow picture] device on a large table; on the reverse four dancing shadow-figures under the full moon by a stand of autumn plants
2½in. (6.2cm.) high
Special notice
No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

For peep-boxes and shadow-pictures, a popular attraction in 18th- and 19th- century Edo (originally imported from Europe and later copied in Japan), see Timon Screech, The Western Scientific Gaze and Popular Imagery in Late Edo Japan (Cambridge, 1996), pp. 106-127.

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