Page 52 - 2019 September 11th Bonhams Lewis Collection Japanese and Korean Art NYC

562
A SMALL LACQUER KODANSU (CABINET)
562 (two views) Edo period (1615-1868), 19th century
Lacquered in iro-e togidashi maki-e and nashiji on a ground of rogin-
nuri with scenes from Shitakiri suzume (The Tale of the Tongue-cut
Sparrow), the edges of the box fundame, the hinged door opening
to reveal three drawers decorated with matsukawabishi designs on
nashiji, the interior of the door with the farmhouse from the story
in gold and silver takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, mura-nashiji and hirame,
silvered metal hardware
3 3 /4 x 3 x 4 3/8in (9.5 x 7.5 x 11cm)
$2,000 - 3,000
563
NAKAYAMA KOMIN (1808-1870)
A lacquer suzuribako (writing box)
Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji era (1868-1912), 19th century
The small rectangular box decorated on the lid in gold and red
togidashi maki-e on a roiro-nuri ground within a black gourd-shaped
reserve of a tea hut and red maples in a rain shower, after a painting
by Kano Naganobu (1775-1828) inscribed on the right Isen hogen
hitsu and sealed To, the four corners ornamented in gold hiramaki-e
with leaf sprays; the grounds of the underside of the lid and lower
interior roiro-nuri with cloud bands of gold and black togidashi
maki-e and hirame and with a poem in gold low-relief lacquer on
the underside of the lid, the interior fitted with a removable tray
containing a silver water dropper in the shape of two conjoined
maple leaves within a silver saucer and with a round fan-shaped
inkstone, signed on the interior tray Sensen Komin saku
6 5/8 x 6 x 1in (16.7 x 15 x 2.5cm)

$3,000 - 4,000
Published
Stephen Little and Edmund J. Lewis, View of the Pinnacle: Japanese
Lacquer Writing Boxes: The Lewis Collection of Suzuribako,
Honolulu: University of Hawaiʻi Press, 2011, cat. no.27

Contemporary lacquer scholar Takao Yo has challenged a long-
563 standing belief that Nakayama Komin died aged 63, making his birth
date 1807 or 1808, since there exists a work by him with a plausible
signature giving his age as 77 and we know that he associated with
both the painter Sakai Hōitsu (1761-1828) and the tea connoisseur
Matsudaira Fumai (1751-1818); see Takao Yōo, “Kinsei maki-eshi
meikan (A Directory of Early- Modern and Modern Lacquerers),”
Rokusho, 24 (March 2005), p.112).

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