Page 140 - mar 21 Japanese and korean art Bonhams

2300 W
AN INLAID LACQUER TABLE
Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392-1897), 19th century
Rectangular and set on cabriole legs and decorated in inlaid mother-
of pearl with a map of the Korean pennisula, the sides and legs
decorated with chrysanthemum and scrolling vines
58 x 40 x 14in (147.3 x 101.6 x 35.5cm)

US$4,000 - 6,000
Provenance
Purportedly presented to Mutsuhito, Emperor Meiji in 1898 from Yi
Ha-Eung (Daewongun)
木戸 幸一 Kido Koichi (1889-1977), Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal of
Japan from 1940 to 1945, by repute

According to associated documents written in 1954, the table
was made to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Toyotomi
Hideyoshi’s Korean campaigns of 1592 and 1597-1598 and was
presented to Meiji Emperor in 1898 by Yi Ha-Eung (1820-1898), a
statement which is perhaps difficult to accept given the degree of
anti-Japanese sentiment in Korea during this period and the fact
that Yi himself had adopted a foreign policy of “no treaties, no trade,
no Catholics, no West and no Japan.” Forced to resign his position
as Regent in 1874 when the rightful heir to the throne came of age,
Yi was once again called into service in 1894 during the Japanese
occupation of Korea, when the occupying authorities needed a
suitable puppet who would be amenable to their policies. This
tributary gift could therefore have been presented during the brief
period before Yi’s death in 1898.

138 | BONHAMS