JAPAN, THE GOLD AND CINNABAR MASTER, 1860-1930

In the footnote to this bottle in Moss, Graham, Tsang, A Treasury of Chinese Snuff Bottles, the Mary and George Bloch Collection, Volume 7, Part 2, Hong Kong, 2009, pp. 551-553, the authors note that it falls within an identifiable group of carved Japanese lacquer bottles, all by the same hand. The group is distinguished by the cleverly balanced mixture of red and gold lacquer and the composition of a shaped panel on either side below a leiwen band. All of the bottes in this group exhibit the high level of artistry that was prevalent on 19th-century Japanese lacquer wares.