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Accessory Box with Irises, circa 1935

Creator: Funamoto Migiwa
Offered by: Thomsen Gallery

Description
Funamoto Migiwa
Accessory Box with Irises, circa 1935
Kanshitsu dry lacquer, maki-e gold and silver lacquer
Size 6¾ x 16¾ x 13¼ in. (17 x 42.7 x 33.8 cm)
T-4813

A tebako (accessory box) of standard historical form with rounded corners and slightly bowed sides, the kabusebuta (overhanging lid) with a narrow chiri-i (“dust-ledge”) and slightly domed top, the wood substrate entirely covered outside in polished red lacquer decorated on the top and sides in gold and aokin hiramaki-e and takamaki-e with flowering irises, the interior with a gold-lacquer ground decorated in black, red, and gold maki-e with stylized nadeshiko (pinks, Dianthus superbus), metal rims

Little information is available regarding this lacquerer beyond the information that he lived in Tokyo and was already active in 1929. This splendid box shows him to have been an outstanding master of the more naturalistic maki-e (“sprinkled picture”) style developed during the 1920s by artists such as Akatsuka Jitoku (1871–1936), with skillful relief modeling and surface textures contributing to a decidedly painterly appearance. In complete contrast to the exterior of the box, the inner surfaces are finished in a striking emulation of an Indian woodblock-printed cotton (chintz) pattern that simultaneously evokes the luxurious silk-brocade linings seen inside some medieval Japanese boxes.

More Information

Documentation:	Signed
Period:	1920-1949
Creation Date:	1935
Styles / Movements:	Modern, Asian
Incollect Reference #:	746818

Dimensions

W.	13.25 in;	H.	6.75 in;	D.	16.75 in;
W.	33.66 cm;	H.	17.15 cm;	D.	42.55 cm;

Message from Seller:

Thomsen gallery, located in a townhouse on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, offers important Japanese paintings and works of art to collectors and museums worldwide. The gallery specializes in Japanese screens and scrolls; in early Japanese tea ceramics from the medieval through the Edo periods; in masterpieces of ikebana bamboo baskets; and in gold lacquer objects.