A gold-lacquer ryoshibako (document box) and cover with en-suite tray
Edo period (1615-1868), 18th/19th century Of standard rectangular form with inrobuta (flush-fitting lid), entirely covered in gold lacquer and decorated in predominantly gold takamaki-e with details executed in high-relief inlay of silver and gold, depicting on the lid three waterfowl on a meandering stream rendered in tsukegaki (raised lines) flanked by flowering tachibana trees and overarching pine-laden branches, the scene filling the top surface and repeated with minor variations around its four sides, the inside of the lid with a sumptuous mansion with an open veranda set on the shores of a mountain stream, sheltered beneath flowering plum inlaid in coral and silver relief, rising towards a full moon in cut gold foil on the top, one of the wood panels of the veranda embellished with a solitary leaping shishi of gold high-relief inlay, the interior with a fitted detachable tray, similarly gold-lacquered with a gated thatched shioya (salt evaporation shed) on the left and in the foreground two moored boats beneath a windblown pine tree on the desolate shore, two sides of the box with a gilt metal mount in the form of a chrysanthemum applied with a loose ring for the silk cord, the underside of the tray, box and interior of rich nashiji; unsigned. 13.2cm x 33.5cm x 40.8cm (5 3/8in x 13 3/16in x 16in). (3).
注脚
Provenance Sir Trevor Lawrence (1831-1913) Collection, no.1184.Published:M. P. Huish, Catalogue of the Collection of Japanese Works of Art of Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bt. London, 1895, pl.XXIV and discussed on p.50; and in the auction catalogue of the collection, The Collection of Lacquer and Other Objects of Japanese Art of the Late Sir Trevor Lawrence, Bart., Christie's, London, 6 November 1916, lot 379, illustrated pl.P.