An unusual roiro lacquer two-case inro
By Shigetsugu and Hamano Shozui, 19th Century
Decorated with a sparrow perched beneath a sedge rain hat suspended from a stalk of bamboo near narcissus reversed by birds flying toward red-berried plants, rendered in gold, silver and iroe takamakie, mother-of-pearl inlay and kirigane, silver takazogan blossoms, the ground of gold and silver hirame over roiro nuri, the risers decorated in togidashi with red prunus blossoms, black lacquer interior, signed in double cartouches horimono Shozui (Masayuki) and makie Shigetsugu; with a tapering tubular bronze ojime decorated with dragonfly and plants, signed (illegible), and a kagamibuta with silver bird in flight applied to a gilt metal plaque.
3 3/8in (8.6cm)
Decorated with a sparrow perched beneath a sedge rain hat suspended from a stalk of bamboo near narcissus reversed by birds flying toward red-berried plants, rendered in gold, silver and iroe takamakie, mother-of-pearl inlay and kirigane, silver takazogan blossoms, the ground of gold and silver hirame over roiro nuri, the risers decorated in togidashi with red prunus blossoms, black lacquer interior, signed in double cartouches horimono Shozui (Masayuki) and makie Shigetsugu; with a tapering tubular bronze ojime decorated with dragonfly and plants, signed (illegible), and a kagamibuta with silver bird in flight applied to a gilt metal plaque.
3 3/8in (8.6cm)
Sold for
US$ 14,400
inc. premium
Footnotes
- Provenance: Eskenazi, October 22, 1984, 147, p. 67.
Literature: An almost identical signature is illustrated in Lazarnick, Netsuke & Inro Artists, vol 2, p. 950.
For the signature and further discussion of dual works by Shigetsugu and Shozui (Masayuki), see E. A. Wrangham, The Index of Inro Artists (Alnwick: Harehope, 1995), pp. 238-239.
Mrs. Meselson's hand-written notes in the Kress archives: "My very first inro. Loved the inside."
Category: Asian Art
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