LATE EDO-MEIJI PERIOD (19TH CENTURY)

Details

A LACQUER BUNDAI [WRITING TABLE] AND SUZURIBAKO [WRITING BOX]
Late Edo-Meiji Period (19th Century)
The bundai of the usual form, the upper surface covered in black lacquer sparsely sprinkled with gold flakes and decorated in gold and silver hiramaki-e, takamaki-e [low- and high-relief lacquer] and other lacquer techniques with a bridge leading to the Sumiyoshi shrine (see also lot 48), with mountains, pine trees and a yagura [look-out tower], the metal fittings of silver, the legs finished in gold nashiji ['pearskin' lacquer]; the suzuribako also covered in black lacquer, decorated in gold, silver and coloured togidashi-e [flat, polished lacquer] with visitors to a shrine hung with ema [votive plaques], the interior with pines and flying cranes, fitted with a suiteki [water-dropper] worked in gold and shakudo [gold-copper alloy] with a pair of shishi [mythical lion-like creatures] and stone suzuri [inkstone] with gold lacquer rim set in a central panel, some scratches
The bundai: 4 1/8 x 12 x 23¾in. (10.5 x 30.5 x 60.3cm.)
The suzuribako: 2 3/16 x 10 x 9 7/16in. (5.5 x 25.5 x 24cm.)

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

For other examples of the style of decoration on the writing box, with figure scenes inspired by eighteenth-century illustrated books, see Kyoto Kokuritsu Hakubutsukan [Kyoto National Museum], Maki-e, shikkoku to ogon no Nihonbi [The Beauty of Black and Gold Japanese Lacquer] (Kyoto, 1995), cat. nos. 206-7 and Joe Earle, Japanese Lacquer: The Chiddingstone Castle Collection (Chiddingstone, Kent, 2000), cat. nos. 113 and 115. The style is generally considered to have first appeared towards the end of the eighteenth century and to have continued into the Meiji period.

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