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Lot 1146

PILOT-NAMIKI: Red Urushi Flower Meadow Maki-e Propelling Pencil, c.1930

16 June 2015, 10:00 PDT
San Francisco

US$5,000 - US$10,000

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PILOT-NAMIKI: Red Urushi Flower Meadow Maki-e Propelling Pencil, c.1930

Scarce Pilot-Namiki extra-long propelling pencil in highly-prized vermilion lacquer. The pen is unsigned but skillfully made in hiramaki-e with kirakane accents on red lacquer ground, measuring 132mm. 14K gold Pilot clip, flat top marked "Made in Japan," 14K rolled gold band. Fine fissures to lacquer, small chip to writing end (pre-dates Namiki's addition of protective brass pencil-tip cones). An exceptional instrument.

Red lacquer maki-e instruments are significantly rarer than black ones and are prized accordingly. Murakami observes that "the quantity of vermilion pens was about one-twentieth of the black lacquered ones. A vermilion lacquered pen... is, therefore, a very rare item." Murakami, Dunhill-Namiki and Lacquer Pens. [Sakura City: 2000], p. 26.

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