UNSIGNED, MEIJI PERIOD (LATE 19TH CENTURY)

Details

A Lacquer Tebako [Occasional Box]
Unsigned, Meiji Period (Late 19th Century)
Rectangular, with flush-fitting lid, the lid with gold-lacquered curved edges, the black lacquer ground densely sprinkled with gold hirame, the decoration consisting of six tsuba, two kozuka and one kogai all executed in gold, silver and coloured takamaki-e, the tsuba comprising one imitating high relief inlay with Okame flinging dried beans at an oni during the Setsubun Festival, another imitating pierced and chiselled iron with cranes, a third with Shoki the Demon-Queller, a fourth with tatebina dolls, a fifth with antique coins and a sixth with a design of a cricket and aubergines, the kozuka comprising one with a crayfish and another with a New Year poem, the kogai with bamboo, the rims edged in silver, the interior and base with gold and silver hirame
4 3/8 x 7 7/8 x 9¼in. (11.2 x 20.1 x 23.5cm.)

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

The practice of decorating lacquer boxes with faithful imitations of sword-fittings seems to have been initiated by Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891).¹

1Barbra Teri Okada, A Sprinkling of Gold: The Lacquer Box Collection of Elaine Ehrenkranz (Newark, NJ, 1983) cat. nos. 33-4.

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