Bonhams 1793 : A fine lacquer three-case inro By Seki Naotaka, early 19th century

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9 Nov 2010 14:30 GMT London, New Bond Street
The Edward Wrangham Collection of Japanese Art: Part I
Back to auction 18493

A fine lacquer three-case inro

By Seki Naotaka, early 19th century
One side of rogin-nuri, lacquered in sumie-togidashi with the illustration of a verse by the Chinese poet Li Bai, showing a lone figure poling a boat on calm water beneath an overhanging rock, the reverse of roiro, the entire poem in gold togidashi with two red seals, the interior of matt silver lacquer, signed Seki Naotaka. 7.6cm (3in).

Sold for £26,400 inc. premium

Footnotes

早發白帝城図蒔絵印籠　銘「関尚考」　19世紀前期

Provenance: Louis Gonse collection.
Demaree and Dorothy Bess collection.
Charles A. Greenfield collection.
Purchased from Eskenazi Ltd., London, 1990.
Wrangham collection, no.1997.

Published: Hotel Drouot, Paris, The Louis Gonse Collection, 1924.
A.J. Pekarick, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980, no.31, illus. fig.44.
E.A.Wrangham, The Index of Inro Artists, 1995, p.197, Seki Naotaka, left.

Exhibited: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1980.
Treasures of the North, The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, 2000, no. 30

The poem by Li Bai (701-762) translates as follows:

In the morning I left Baidi through radiant clouds
Returning to Jiangling, three hunded miles in one day.
On both banks monkeys cry incessantly.
My swift boat has already passed ten thousand layered peaks.