EDO PERIOD (EARLY 17TH CENTURY)

Details

A FUBAKO [LETTER BOX]
Edo Period (Early 17th Century)
Kodai-ji maki-e, with overhanging, slightly domed lid, black lacquer ground decorated in gold hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, nashiji, tsukegaki and harigaki, depicting butterflies flying over sprays of chrysanthemum and susuki [pampas grass], the sides of the box similarly decorated and fitted with two gilt copper nanako ring-fittings incised with kiri mon, the interior black lacquer, fundame rims, slight old wear
23.4cm. long

Special notice

Buyers from within the EU: VAT payable at 17.5% on just the buyer's premium (NOT the hammer price) Buyers from outside the EU: VAT payable at 17.5% on hammer price and buyer's premium. If a buyer, having registered under a non-EU address, decides that an item is not to be exported from the EU, then he/she should advise Christie's to this effect immediately.

Lot Essay

Many of the lacquer utensils used by Toyotomi Hideyoshi and his wife Kodai-in, are preserved in the Kodai-ji temple, said to have been established in 1606 by Kodai-in as a mausoleum for her husband. The term Kodai-ji maki-e is used not only in relation to the objects of Hideyoshi's household but also to other lacquers in the same style and techniques from the same period, the latter part of the 16th century. The most elegant motifs used in the Kodai-ji maki-e style are the flowering grasses of autumn, of which this is an example. Others include pine, bamboo, maple, hagi [bush clover], kikyo [Chinese bellflower], kuzu [arrowroot], fujibakama [hemp agrimony] and ominaeshi [patrinia scabiosaefolia].

For an incense box with a similar subject see Yoshimura Motoo, Kodaiji Makie (Kyoto, 1971), no. 46.

More from Japanese Art and Design

View All