Page 48 - Bonhams Royal Collection Fine Japanese Art London Nov. 2019

15 *
SHIBATA ZESHIN 柴田是真 (1807–1891)
SMALL BOX WITH DESIGN OF AUTUMN GRASSES
秋草図素彫小箱
Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1870–1890

A small box with kabusebuta (overhanging lid), the body, with rounded Provenance:
edges, likely constructed using a combination of the magemono Misumi Hisashi Collection
(bentwood) and harinuki (layered-paper) techniques, the reddish-brown 三隅悠 旧蔵
lacquer ground cut and engraved in subori with a design of susuki Sold in these Rooms, 10 November 2015, lot 1
(plume grass) and fujibakama (‘purple trousers’ or thoroughwort);
signed with incised characters inside the lid at lower left Zeshin 是真 Exhibited:
Zeshin Hyakunijūnen Tsuizen Tenran, Tokyo, 2011
3.9cm × 8.5cm × 7.4cm (1½in × 3⅜in × 2⅞in) Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 2017–2018

With fitted clear-lacquered wood tomobako inscribed Zeshin saku Exhibited and Published:
akikusa-bako 是真作 秋草箱 (Box with autumn plants by Zeshin) Nezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum) 2012, cat. no. 56
and paper label from the Zeshin Hyakunijūnen Tsuizen Tenran
是真百廿年追善記念展覧 (Zeshin 120th Anniversary Display), £10,000 - 15,000
held in Tokyo in 2011 (4) JPY1,300,000 - 1,900,000
US$12,000 - 18,000
In his catalogue note for the 2012 Zeshin exhibition at the Nezu
Museum, Takao Yō comments that Zeshin used a single marukebori
(curved line-engraving) knife to execute this delicate composition. For
a somewhat larger box by Zeshin with a related autumnal design in
different techniques, see Earle and Gōke 1996, cat. no. 21.

For details of the charges payable in addition to the final Hammer Price of each Lot
46 | BONHAMS please refer to paragraphs 7 & 8 of the Notice to Bidders at the back of the catalogue.