Page 196 - Bonhams, The H Collection, Classical Chinese Furniture, May 13, 2021 London

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A RARE GILT-COPPER-MOUNTED SHELL-INLAID NANBAN Crafted in Kyoto’s lacquer workshops alongside quite different wares
LACQUER CABINET intended for elite Japanese clients, these kinds of Nanban coffers
Momoyama Period, late 16th/early 17th century and cabinets decorated in gold hiramaki-e and shell were among the
Embellished predominantly in gold hiramaki-e lacquer and inlaid earliest Japanese artefacts to reach Asian and European markets,
with shell, the single-hinged door decorated on the front with a ho-o starting two or three decades after the first landfall by Portuguese
(phoenix) and a smaller bird standing on a rock among flowering adventurers in the mid-sixteenth century. Celebrated today for their
peony and kikyo (Chinese bellflowers), three other birds in flight, the lavish, innovative technique and dense ornamentation (inspired in part
top surface with a pair of four-tusked elephants resting among tall by wares from other parts of Asia), such pieces brought the Japanese
stems of kikyo, plum blossoms and pine; the right side with a bird of genius for design to global attention and ensured that Japan would be
prey about to attack one of two smaller birds, one perched on a maple synonymous with ‘lacquer’ until the present day.
tree; the left side with a pair of monkeys gripping trailing branches
of wisteria; the back with meandering branches of clematis; the Traded along newly-opened global sea routes, Japanese lacquers
door opening downwards to reveal an interior panel decorated with offered Asian and European monarchs alike a distant glimpse of the
meandering branches of kuzu (kudzu vine), and eleven drawers of four splendours of the Momoyama age, when great warlords like Toyotomi
sizes decorated with assorted floral designs including camellia, fruiting Hideyoshi (1537–1598) took overall control of the country. Hideyoshi
orange tachibana and nogiku (wild chrysanthemums), all arranged and his rivals, vassals and successors ordered lavish use of gold—
horizontally in four rows and fitted with a gilt-copper chrysanthemum not just on lacquer wares but on folding screens and wall-painting
knop surrounding a central drawer fitted with a copper lock plate, ensembles as well—to brighten the brooding interior spaces of their
all framed by narrow thin bands of gold lacquer zig-zag motifs, the magnificent palaces and castles.
sides with two copper-gilt carrying handles, the corners applied
with gilt-copper fittings engraved with stylised cherry, the underside The decoration of this splendid cabinet, with lively animal, bird and
undecorated; with the original key. flower designs placed within rich floral and geometric ornament,
64cm (25 1/8in) wide x 43.5cm (17 1/8in) high x 34cm (13½in) deep. (2). points to a date during the closing years of the sixteenth century or
the opening decades of the seventeenth, when such wares partially
£20,000 - 30,000 reflected contemporaneous pictorial trends within Japan.
CNY180,000 - 270,000
For a discussion about Nanban fall-front cabinets of this type,
日本桃山時代，十六世紀晚期/十七世紀早期 花鳥獣蒔絵螺鈿洋櫃 illustrating comparative examples, see O.Impey and C.J.A.Jörg,
Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, Amsterdam, 2005, pp.122-124.

Provenance:
An important European private collection

來源：
歐洲重要私人收藏

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