A COLLECTION OF JAPANESE MINIATURE LACQUER PIECES

A COLLECTION OF JAPANESE MINIATURE LACQUER PIECES
EDO PERIOD AND LATER, 17TH CENTURY AND LATER

Mostly decorated in gold hiramaki-e and takamaki-e on a black roiro ground, including three models of rectangular fubako boxes and covers embellished with flowers and scrolling tendrils; a miniature model of a hōkai box and cover for the kai-awase shell game, enclosing four minute painted shells; a model of a ryōshibako (document box), the cover decorated with a fourteen-petal chrysanthemum mon and hō-ō birds; and a seashell box and cover decorated in gold, iroe hiramaki-e and gold foil on a roironuri ground; and a fan-shaped box in Somada style, decorated with kirikane and aogai inlays on a black roiro ground, with a boy sat between a basket of flowers and a large ox, a poem above; 8.5cm max. (18)

Provenance: from the Tomkinson Family Collection. The fan-shaped box and seashell one both formerly in the collection of James Orange, Hong Kong; purchased from Christie’s London, 19^th June 1997, lot 601 (part).

Literature: the seashell box published in J Orange, Catalogue of a Small Collection of Japanese Lacquer, no.57, illustrated on p.26.

James Orange lived in Hong Kong at the turn of the century, visiting Japan frequently and assembling an impressive lacquer collection. Many of his pieces were bequeathed to the British Museum in 1928.