A PAIR OF JAPANESE 'CHICKENS' LACQUER BOXES AND COVERS

£1,500 - £2,500 £10,332

A PAIR OF JAPANESE 'CHICKENS' LACQUER BOXES AND COVERS
EDO OR MEIJI, 18TH/19TH CENTURY

One modelled as a cockerel and the other as a hen, their plumage and combs delicately rendered in gold, silver, black and red takamaki-e and hiramaki-e, the upper halves of the birds opening to reveal interiors embellished in gold nashiji lacquer, 17cm max. (4)

Cf. M Kopplin, Les laques du Japan, Collections de Marie-Antoinette, p.186, no.56, for a cockerel originally in the French Queen's collection. The Queen was very fond of her Japanese lacquer which featured many variously shaped boxes including this one illustrated opposite, modelled as a chicken. The box is listed in a 1789 inventory at Versailles, in the ‘Cabinet Doré de la Reine’ (the Queen’s Golden Chamber), in pride of place on a table beside the chimney.

Also, see Christie's, Three Dealing Dynasties: London, Paris, Geneva, 23 May 2024, lot 124, for a Japanese gold lacquer box and cover shaped as a hen with her chicks.