THREE JAPANESE LACQUER INRŌ

THREE JAPANESE LACQUER INRŌ
EDO/MEIJI, 19TH CENTURY

The first a three-case black lacquer inrō with champlevé decoration of flowers, scrolling tendrils and butterflies, the base with a paper collection label reading 'Tomkinson Collection 691'; another a Somada school four-case inrō decorated with geometric patterns picked out in gold and silver inlays on a roiro ground, framed by gold cherry blossoms on a mother of pearl cracked-ice ground; one side with a gold lacquer cicada and the other with red and gold maple leaves; the base signed Somada saku; the third a three-case inrō with landscape decoration rendered in relief and in various coloured lacquers against a red cinnabar ground; 8.7cm max. (3)

Provenance: the Tomkinson Family Collection. The first inrō originally collected by Michael Tomkinson (1841-1921) and thence by descent.

Literature: the first inrō listed in M Tomkinson, A Japanese Collection Made by Michael Tomkinson, vol.I, p.19, no. 691.