Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

AN EARLY JAPANESE NAMBAN CABINET FOR THE EXPORT MARKET

MOMOYAMA PERIOD, C.1580-1620

Of rectangular form and with a hinged fall front opening to reveal nine drawers, the door and sides decorated with panels enclosing many fans embellished with bands of geometric designs and flowering branches of prunus, scrolling tendrils, and ume-bachi mon (family crests), in between borders of chevrons and other formal patterns, the decoration rendered in a multitude of raiden (mother of pearl) inlays and gold and black lacquer, the inside with further mother of pearl inlays and gilt decoration depicting panels of flowering prunus and peony, the copper fittings and side loop handles with designs of melons, flowers and tendrils, together with a key, 28cm x 37.5cm x 24cm. (2)

Provenance: from an English private collection, London. Formerly Sotheby's London, 24th June 1982, lot 566.

Cf. O Impey & C Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer (1580-1850), pp.123-24 where this very piece is illustrated and discussed.

See the Brooklyn Museum, New York, access. no.84.69.1, for a comparable piece decorated with open fans. Also, see Christie's, New York, An Inquiring Mind: American Collecting of Japanese and Korean Art, lot 33, for another namban cabinet with mother of pearl fans.

The ume-bachi mon was notably used by the Hisamatsu and the Maeda clans.