Page 127 - Bonhams Chinese & Asian Works of Art Los Angelis December 14 2020

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A LACQUER SUZURIBAKO (WRITING BOX) A LACQUER SUZURIBAKO (WRITING BOX)
Edo period (1615-1868), 18th/19th century Meiji era (1868-1912), late 19th century
The small rectangular box decorated to resemble a bound album with Rectangular, decorated in shades of gold, silver, red, and black
a scene of blossoming autumn grasses by a woven bamboo fence takamaki-e with embellishments of kirikane, kinpun, and aogai with a
and a single cricket in gold and silver takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, togidashi coiling dragon in clouds above rolling waves in seigai-ha (combed-
maki-e with highlights of kirikane, kinpun and gold foil on a dense wave lacquer), the eyes of the dragon inlaid in glass, the underside
nashiji ground, the underside of the cover decorated with a scene of of the cover decorated with the attributes of Hotei, one of the Seven
courtiers on a veranda with a cricket cage, a reference to Suzumushi Gods of Good Fortune, including a treasure sack, a staff with a
(The Bell Cricket), Chapter 38 of Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji), handscroll and gourd attached, and a fan decorated with a phoenix,
the interior with a rectangular inkstone and a silver water dropper cast the interior of the box fitted with a rectangular inkstone and a silver
as a bound album water dropper cast as a flaming jewel, all agains a mura-nashiji ground
With a wood tomobako storage box 9.7/8 x 9 3/8 x 2in (25.3 x 23.8 x 5cm)
7 3/4 x 6 3/4 x 1 3/16in (19.7 x 17 x 3cm)
$4,000 - 5,000
$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 Hawai’i Press, 2011, cat. no. 69

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