An unusual, inlaid, and lacquered-wood circular suzuribako (box for writing utensils) By a member of the Nomura family, Edo period (1615-1868), 18th/19th century (4)
An unusual, inlaid, and lacquered-wood circular suzuribako (box for writing utensils)
By a member of the Nomura family, Edo period (1615-1868), 18th/19th centuryThe inrobuta (flush-fitting lid) embellished in gold and iro-e hiramaki-e with an old map of the world, annotated in katakana and Chinese characters, the inside of the lid lacquered in gold hiramaki-e and applied with two ceramic clams from one of which issues forth Chinese figures in intricate and exotic landscape scenes representing the Shinkiro ('Clam's Dream'), the inside of the box with a fitted round board, black-lacquered with a wave-patterned ground containing a removable oval suzuri (ink-grinding stone) and a silver suiteki (water-dropper) in the form of a crescent moon, the side of the box applied with the junishi (12 animals of the East Asian zodiac) carved in relief in pale-olive and white pottery, each within a rectangular reserve on a lacquered ground of turbulent waters; signed on the underside of the box Nomura Kigo/Sonoato sei. 3.3cm x 23.1cm (1?in x 9 1/16in). (4).
注脚
The large red land mass located at the bottom of the world map on the lid is identified as the hypothetical continent of Terra Australis ('South Land' in Latin), sometimes also called Australia or Magellanica (the 'Land of Magellan'), among other names. While not yet discovered, it was presumed to exist as it was believed there should be a land mass in the southern hemisphere to balance that in the northern hemisphere. It was depicted in maps between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries.The label of the continent on the lid is from a Chinese transliteration of Magellanica.