Skip to main content

This auction has ended. View lot details

You may also be interested in

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

A black lacquer four-case inro By the Inagawa Family, 19th century image 1
A black lacquer four-case inro By the Inagawa Family, 19th century image 2
A black lacquer four-case inro By the Inagawa Family, 19th century image 3
Other Properties
Lot 118

A black lacquer four-case inro
By the Inagawa Family, 19th century

7 November 2013, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £1,625 inc. premium

Own a similar item?

Submit your item online for a free auction estimate.

How to sell

Looking for a similar item?

Our Japanese Art specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.

Find your local specialist

A black lacquer four-case inro

By the Inagawa Family, 19th century
Bearing a rich roiro ground, lacquered with a continuous design of two warriors of the Heike army, in full armour, approaching a large tree, on the other side of which a groom restrains a bucking horse, while two doves fly overhead, in gold, silver and slight-coloured takamakie and e-nashiji with highlights of kirikane, the interior of nashiji, signed Inagawa with red pot seal.
8.5cm (3 3/8in) high.

Footnotes

The subject illustrates an episode from the Taira-Minamoto wars, when Minamoto no Yoritomo hid from his Taira pursuers in the hollow of a large tree. He managed to escape when one of the enemy, Kajiwara Kagetoki, pointed out two flying doves, which diverted their attention.

Another example of an inro with the same subject by a member of the Inagawa family was illustrated by A. J. Pekarik, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1980, no.46, fig.57; and by Eskenazi Ltd., The Charles A. Greenfield Collection of Japanese Lacquer, London, 1990, p.100, no.48.

Additional information

Bid now on these items

A STRING OF FORTY-FIVE ASSORTED MIXED-METAL OJIME FASTENERS Japan, Meiji (1868-1912) or Taisho (1912-1926) era, late 19th/early 20th century,

A PAIR OF LARGE TANG-STYLE PAINTED WOOD HORSES China, early 20th century

A TURQUOISE BEIJING GLASS BOTTLE VASE China, 18th/19th century,

TWO MAKIE-E LACQUER TEA BOWL STANDS Japan, late Edo period (1615–1868) or Meiji era (1868–1912), 19th century,

A SOAPSTONE FIGURE OF LI BAI China,

A rare Chinese group of the Tyrolean Dancers, Qianlong period, circa 1752

A SIXTY THREE-PLATE SUJIBACHI KABUTO HELMET Japan, late Muromachi period (1333-1573),

A MOUNTED WAKIZASHI Japan, Edo period, 19th century,