EDO PERIOD (17TH-18TH CENTURY)

Details

A Sumiakabako [Large Red-Cornered Cosmetic Box]
Edo Period (17th-18th century)
Of red-lacquered cloth over wood, decorated in gold and black hiramaki-e and nashiji with a katagawari zig-zag pattern with bellflowers and bellflower mon, black lacquer interior, engraved copper fittings
37.3cm. long

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the 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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