Page 70 - 2019 September 11th Bonhams Lewis Collection Japanese and Korean Art NYC

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AN EXPORT LACQUER CABINET Published
Edo period (1615-1868), second quarter of the 17th century Edmund J. Lewis and Joe Earle, Shadows and Reflections: Japanese
The rectangular cabinet fitted with hinged doors and decorated in Lacquer Art from the Collection of Edmund J. Lewis at the Honolulu
gold and silver hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, nashiji, kirikane and aogai, the Academy of Arts, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1996, cat. no. 6
top and sides all decorated with shaped panels containing moonlit
landscapes, blossoming autumn plants, and an owl perched in a The unusually fine decoration of this cabinet, in the style associated
camellia tree, each panel set against a dense gold nashiji ground, the with lacquerwares manufactured for the Dutch market starting in
edges finished in bands of geometric design and chrysanthemums about 1620, allows us to associate with it a famous group of pieces
and vines, the interior of the doors decorated with blossoming dating from the 1630s, several of them special commissions for
flowers, the removable drawers black lacquer, the silver hardware leading officers of the Dutch East India Company. The landscape
decorated with chrysanthemum heads and stylized vines panels, in particular, match those special commissions in the quality
12 1/4 x 16.7/8 x 14 7/8in (31.2 x 42.8 x 37.7cm) of their execution and their exotic medley of Japanese with Chinese,
Korean and other foreign motifs; see Joe Earle, “Genji Meets Yang
$18,000 - 25,000 Guifei: A Group of Early Japanese Export Lacquers,” <i>Transactions
of the Oriental Ceramic Society</i>, 47 (1982-3), pp.45-75.

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