JAPANESE AND KOREAN ART 23 march 2022

667
A GOLD LACQUER PIPE-SMOKING SET
Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji era (1868-1912), mid/late 19th century
Resting on a scalloped base with four bracket feet and fitted with two larger
and two smaller drawers, the back and sides topped by a balustrade-like
structure strung with silver wires, the front with two hooks supporting a
slender kiseru (tobacco pipe), the inner platform fronted by a low balustrade
and cut with two recesses securing on the left a tobacco container with
a partially openwork lid and a scoop and on the right a miniature lidded
brazier; decorated in gold, aokin, silver, and colored hiramaki-e and
takamaki-e with lavish embellishments of gold kirigane against a background
of densely sprinkled gold hirame flakes, depicting mountain scenes with
pines, flowering trees, streams and a waterfall, the metal fittings (drawer
handles, corner decorations, hooks, knop, pipe components, and box lid) all
of silver or shibuichi, some chiseled with floral designs
7 5/8 x 13 5/8 x 11 5/8in (19.2 x 34.6 x 29.5cm)
$5,000 - 7,000
667
668
IWASAKI KOGYOKU (1827-1890s)
A lacquer tebako (accessory box)
Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1890
Of rectangular shape and fitted with two lower drawers and a shallow cover
with rounded edges decorated overall with the Omi hakkei (The Eight Views
of Omi [Lake Biwa]) in hiramaki-e, low-relief takamaki-e, and togidashi
maki-e with details of okibirame, silver lacquer, keuchi, and e-nashiji
framed by mura-nashiji, the underside of the lid, interior compartment, and
interiors of both drawers decorated with open and closed folding fans with
landscapes and flowers in hiramaki-e and togidashi maki-e on a nashiji
ground, the drawer pulls silver engraved with hollyhock crests, signed in
gold lacquer on one fan on the underside of the lid Kogyoku
With a wood tomobako storage box affixed with a paper label stating that
this tebako was handed down through the Tokugawa family of Kii Province
8 3/4 x 7 3/8 x 6in (24.7 x 18.7 x 15.2cm)
$6,000 - 8,000
Provenance
Previously sold Christie’s, New York, September 19, 2002, lot 232.
668
Exhibited and Published
Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Scattered Gold and
Midnight Gloss, Japanese Lacquer from the Anbinder Collection, exhibition
catalog March 31-July 8, 2007 p. 9.
Published
Takao Yo, Kinsei maki-eshi meikan (A Directory of Early-Modern and Modern
Lacquerers), Rokusho 17 (1996), p.107; for further reference see Rokusho
54 (2005), p.92.
Iwasaki Kogyoku (given names Inohei or Inokuchi) was trained in the
workshop of Hara Yoyusai (1772-1845/6) from 1839. Later he worked on
repairs to the Toshogu shrine at Nikko. In the 1870s and 1880s he worked
for the Kiryu Kosho Kaisha in Tokyo and sometimes used designs by the
painter Kawanabe Kyosai. There are six designs by him in Onchi zuroku,
a set of more than 2,500 craft-design sketches made between 1875 and
1883 as guidance to participants in international exhibitions. Of Iwasaki’s
six designs in the Onchi zuroku the one that most closely resembles the
accessory box here is a landscape with boats in takamaki-e on a pair of
sliding doors. His signed works are rare.
PROPERTY OF A LADY
669
A GOLD LACQUER BUNKO (DOCUMENT BOX)
Edo period (1615-1868), 19th century
Rectangular with canted edges and sumikiri (angled corners), decorated in
two shades of gold hiramaki-e and takakmaki-e with highlights of kirikane,
kinji, hirame, nashiji, and uchikomi on a graduated brown ground with
blossoming cherry and pine trees enshrouded in mist and young pine trees
among rocks, the interior decorated in sparse hirame, the rims silver
15 x 12 3/4 x 5 1/4in (38.1 x 32.4 x 13.3cm)
669
$2,500 - 3,500
80 | BONHAMS