Set of Writing Box and Document Box with Poem Cards, ca 1920

Set of Writing Box and Document Box with Poem Cards, ca 1920
Maki-e gold lacquer on wood
Size document box: 6½ x 15½ x 12 in. (16.3 x 39.6 x 30.4 cm)
Size writing box: 2 x 9¾ x 9 in. (4.8 x 24.5 x 22.6 cm)
T-4295

Both rectangular with sumikiri (cut-off corners), inrōbuta (flush-fitting lids), and silver rims; the suzuribako (writing box) fitted with a frame with fude-oki (brush rests) to left and right supporting two fude (brushes) and a raised central section with recesses for suzuri (ink-griding stone) and suiteki (water dropper); both ryōshibako (document box) and suzuribako with wood substrate finished in highly polished blackened roiro lacquer and decorated in gold, aokin, silver, and colored takamaki-e and hiramaki-e with embellishments of gold hirame flakes and individually placed okibirame squares of gold foil; the exteriors of both boxes with overlapping scattered shikishi (squares of decorated paper); those on the suzuribako with designs including a bugaku dancer in the Ranryō-ō role, pine trees by a Shinto shrine, fall foliage at Arashiyama, two with lines of poetry; those on the ryōshibako with designs including pine trees by a mountain stream, a bugaku ōdaiko drum partially visible behind a nomaku (outdoor curtain), a bird on a branch of camellia, a mountain waterfall, the moon over Musashino plain, and lines of poetry; the interiors of both boxes finished in blackened roiro lacquer embellished with dense hirame gold flakes and decorated (except for the interior of the ryōshibako) in gold, aokin, and silver with some of the nanakusa (seven plants of early fall): kikyō, fujibakama, hagi, and ominaeshi, along with wild chrysanthemums, by a garden fence; the silver suiteki in the form of two overlapping shikishi with chrysanthemum blossoms, the suzuri with gold-lacquered rim

Exhibitions
Lak 2018
TEFAF 2018
Lak 2017
TEFAF 2017