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A Japanese lacquer penbox (qalamdan) for the Persian market Japan, late 19th Century image 1
A Japanese lacquer penbox (qalamdan) for the Persian market Japan, late 19th Century image 2
Lot 123

A Japanese lacquer penbox (qalamdan) for the Persian market
Japan, late 19th Century

22 May 2025, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £2,560 inc. premium

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A Japanese lacquer penbox (qalamdan) for the Persian market
Japan, late 19th Century

with rounded ends and sliding tray, decorated in powdered-shell lacquer (aogai) with gold relief-work (takamaki-e) and details in red and black, depicting Abe no Nakamaro in a landscape, the base and sides of inner tray with gold nashiji lacquer
22.7 cm. long

Footnotes

Japanese lacquer makers began to produce wares for overseas markets, including Persia, due to the opening of foreign trade following the Meiji restoration of 1868. For examples of Japanese qalamdans for the Persian market in The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, see N. D. Khalili, B. W. Robinson & T. Stanley, Lacquer of the Islamic Lands, Part II, Oxford, 1997, pp. 214-215, Cat. 441, 442, 443, & 444.

Abe no Nakamaro (c. 698-770) was a Japanese scholar and poet known for his poems about longing for his home in Nara, including the following, which is represented on the present lot:

ama no hara furisakemireba Kasuga naru
Mikasa-no-yama ni ideshi tsuki ka mo


'When I look up into the vast sky tonight, is it the same moon that I saw rising from behind Mt. Mikasa at Kasuga Shrine all those years ago?'

Additional information