Lot 37
37
A LACQUER SUMIAKABAKO [LARGE RED-CORNERED COSMETIC BOX]
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus bu… Read more
A LACQUER SUMIAKABAKO [LARGE RED-CORNERED COSMETIC BOX]

MID-EDO PERIOD (18TH CENTURY)

Details
A LACQUER SUMIAKABAKO [LARGE RED-CORNERED COSMETIC BOX]
Mid-Edo Period (18th Century)
Of red-lacquered cloth over wood, the top and side panels with a black lacquer ground decorated in gold hiramaki-e [low-relief lacquer], e-nashiji [gold flakes used in details of the design] and other techniques with stylised clove motifs, the other surfaces black lacquer, the cord-fittings gilt metal, slight old damage
9¼ x 10 15/16 x 11 5/8in. (23.5 x 27.8 x 29.5cm.)
Special notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

Boxes of this type, which first appeared in the middle of the fourteenth century, are called sumiakabako [boxes with red corners]. Although their use was not strictly prescribed, it seems that they usually held cosmetics, and they regularly formed part of konrei chodo [formal wedding trousseaux]. See Koike Tomio, 'Hatsune no chodo ni tsuite [On the Hatsune no chodo]', in Tokugawa Art Museum, Hatsune no chodo [Hatsune maki-e lacquer furnishings] (Nagoya, 1985), (111-21), 120

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