LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY

Details

A JAPANESE GILT-BRONZE-MOUNTED NAMBAN LACQUER CABINET
LATE 16TH/EARLY 17TH CENTURY
Inlaid overall with mother-of-pearl, the exterior decorated with an overall design of flowers and foliage, the hinged fall-front enclosing a fitted interior with four drawers
23 cm. high x 41 cm. high x 35.5 cm. deep

Special notice

Christie’s charges a premium to the buyer on the Hammer Price of each lot sold at the following rates: 29.75% of the Hammer Price of each lot up to and including €20,000, plus 23.8% of the Hammer Price between €20,001 and €800.000, plus 14.28% of any amount in excess of €800.000. Buyer’s premium is calculated on the basis of each lot individually.

Lot Essay

The present cabinet with its distinctive black, silvered and gilt lacquered decoration off-set with inlays of mother-of-pearl was among the first Japanese export lacquer goods to arrive in the West. Although the Portuguese prised Japanese lacquered goods, they did not trade it in the West, but almost exclusively in the inter-Asian trade and as diplomatic gifts. When the Dutch gained a foothold in Japan in the early 17th century, they quickly saw the trade potential of lacquered goods, the first shipment of Namban lacquer arrived in Holland in 1610.
A cabinet with fall front similarly decorated with an overall scheme is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Cf. O. Impe & C. Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, Amsterdam, 2005, pp. 122-123, no 228.

More from European Noble and Private Collections

View All