Page 74 - Sothebys Fine Japanese Art London, November 2018

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A NANBAN CABINET This magnificent cabinet is part of an early group of Namban
MOMOYAMA PERIOD, 16TH CENTURY lacquer that arrived in Europe around 1600. Oliver Impey,
Japanese Keeper at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, identified
蒔絵箪笥、江戸時代、17世紀
these as the chests without fall fronts as exemplified by the
Ambras Cabinet inventoried in 1607. See Oliver Impey and
the rectangular chest with the rare construction of twelve Christiaan J. A. Jörg, Japanese Export lacquer 1580-1850
drawers surrounding a central architectural drawer, without a (Amsterdam, 2005) pl. 226 p. 122, a further example in the
drop front, decorated in gold hiramaki-e on a black ground and Ashmolean Museum is illustrated pl. 226 p. 123.
inlaid in mother-of-pearl with panels of birds among scrolling
foliage, elaborate gilt metal kanagu An example without a drop front is illustrated in the catalogue
62 cm, 24⅖ in. high of the Schlossmuseum Gotha, Herbert Bräutigam, Schätze
japanische Lackkunst auf Schloss Friedenstein (Gotha, 1998).
The Europeans arrived in Japan at the end of the 16th century
for trade and Jesuit Christian missionary work. To furnish the For further information on lacquer caskets commissioned by
Christian churches in Japan and also for export, Japanese Europeans, visit the British Museum website:
lacquer workers produced a variety of decorative lacquer https://artsandculture.google.com/asset/travelling-chest-
chests, coffers, boxes and even beds, as well as religious kamaboko-bako/AAHO2ocbtwu9Tg
ceremonial objects such as shrines, missal stands and host
boxes. They were largely in European form but decorated with For further reading on Nanban lacquerware, see James C. Y.
Japanese designs, sometimes incorporating Western patterns. Watt and Barbara B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence
and Herbert Living Collection, (New York, 1991), pl. 169-173;
Namban lacquerwares were mainly decorated in gold for the Nanban chests and coffers; Oliver Impey and Christian
hiramaki-e and shell inlay as in this present lot. Mother-of-pearl Jörg, Japanese Export lacquer 1580-1850 (Amsterdam, 2005),
was used to reflect candlelight in dark interiors. Their design p. 147-158; and Teresa Canepa, The Trade of Japanese Lacquer
is related to Kodaiji lacquer, a style of lacquerware made to Europe and the New World in the Late 16th and Early 17th
in Kyoto during the late Momoyama and early Edo periods, Centuries, Proceedings of the Japan Society, number 154,
which is characterised by designs of flowers and plants in gold 2017, p. 52
hiramaki-e on black ground.
† £ 50,000-70,000
€ 56,500-79,000 US$ 66,000-92,500

72 SOTHEBY’S