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A GOLD-LACQUER TEBAKO (ACCESSORY BOX) Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji era (1868-1912), 19th century image 1
A GOLD-LACQUER TEBAKO (ACCESSORY BOX) Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji era (1868-1912), 19th century image 2
A GOLD-LACQUER TEBAKO (ACCESSORY BOX) Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji era (1868-1912), 19th century image 3
Lot 113

A GOLD-LACQUER TEBAKO (ACCESSORY BOX)
Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji era (1868-1912), 19th century

14 December 2023, 17:00 EST
New York

Sold for US$12,800 inc. premium

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A GOLD-LACQUER TEBAKO (ACCESSORY BOX)

Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji era (1868-1912), 19th century
Rectangular with rounded corners and slightly domed inrōbuta (flush-fitting lid), the exterior decorated in gold hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, and togidashi-e, inlaid coral, silver and gilt metal, and gold and silver okibirame mosaic against a background of dense gold Gyōbu nashiji flakes, depicting images associated with Chapter 23, Hatsune (The First Song of Spring) of Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji), set in Prince Genji's Rokujō Mansion, the residence of his daughter the Akashi princess: in the center a gilt-metal uguisu (warbler) perched on flowering plum branches; beside the plum, pines and a garden lake ending by a stand of pine saplings at upper right, the interior of the mansion glimpsed in a short stretch of tatami flooring with kichō (formal curtains) and rolled sudare (blinds), the interior and base nashiji, the rims silver, unsigned; with a black-lacquered wood storage box inscribed in gold hiramaki-e characters Hatsune maki-e ontebako (Accessory box with maki-e design of the First Song of Spring)
5 × 8 × 9 1/2in (12.8 × 20.3 × 24.2cm)

Footnotes

Provenance
Christie's London, November 16, 2000, lot 67

Published
Spink and Son Limited, Japanese Lacquer: Miyabi Transformed, exhibition catalogue, London, 1997, cat. no. 20

The design on this richly worked tebako has a distinguished pedigree, appearing for the first time in its full form as a motif for lacquer decoration on the Hatsune no Chōdo, an extensive set of wedding gifts created in the late 1630s for the wedding of the infant daughter of the third shogun. The key to the identity of the scene is provided by the small bird in the branches of the cherry tree at bottom center. The opening paragraphs of Chapter 23, Hatsune (The First Song of Spring), of Genji monogatari (The Tale of Genji, the great novel of courtly life authored by Lady Murasaki Shikibu in the early eleventh century), narrate Genji's New Year's Day visit to the quarters of several of his ladies, one of whom sends over an artificial bird that is made the subject of a poem: Toshitsuki o / matsu ni hikarete / furuhito ni / kyō uguisu no / Hatsune kikase yo (My old eyes are caught / by pines reminding me of / passing months and years / I hope today I'll hear the song / of spring's first warbler).1

1. Murasaki Shikibu (Edward Seidensticker trans.), The Tale of Genji, London, Secker and Warburg, 1976, pp.409-411

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