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AN EXTRAORDINARY AND LARGE LACQUER ‘SWORD FITTINGS’ TRAVELING CHEST, STYLE OF SHIBATA ZESHIN
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06月12日 晚上7点 开拍 / 06月10日 下午3点 截止委托
拍品描述
AN EXTRAORDINARY AND LARGE LACQUER ‘SWORD FITTINGS’ TRAVELING CHEST, STYLE OF SHIBATA ZESHIN

Japan, late 19th century, Meiji period (1868-1912)

Published: Resonance of Wa - The Japanese Spirit. Casal Collection, 2025, p. 236.

Exquisitely crafted and of generous proportions, the chest is of rectangular form with recessed edges finished in gold fundame, mounted with gilt-brass fittings finely engraved with foliate motifs. Each side is executed on a rich roiro ground and superbly decorated with an elaborate arrangement of simulated sword fittings, including tsuba (sword guards) and kozuka (knife handles), rendered in polychrome lacquer with remarkable technical virtuosity to emulate metalwork.

The individual designs depict a wide array of classical and popular subjects, including Urashima Taro, Bodhidharma, Raiko and the Earth Spider, The Three Sake Tasters, Hotei, and The Oil Thief, among others.

SIZE 38.6 x 62.2 x 42.5 cm

Provenance: Ex-Collection of Ugo Alfons Casal. Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, bequeathed from the above and subsequently de-accessioned in 2021. Ugo Alfons Casal, of Swiss-German origin, was born in Florence, Italy, in 1888. He moved to Japan in 1918, working first at the Osaka branch of George H. McFadden & Brothers and then at F. S. Morse & Co. in Kobe from 1920 to 1938. Primarily involved in the cotton trade, Casal spent most of his life in Kobe, with a few years in Yokohama, until his death in 1964. Throughout his time in Japan, he remained passionate about collecting Japanese art. In the late 1930s, amidst deteriorating relations between Japan and the United States, Casal planned to move his collection to America. However, the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941 halted this plan, and the collection was instead stored in wooden crates at Kobe Port. With his personal connections, Casal successfully moved the collection to the Osaka City Museum of Fine Arts, where it was kept in storage during the wartime and postwar years. After his death, the collection was bequeathed to the museum, where it remains one of the most valuable bodies of works in Japan.
Condition: The lower section with significant losses and crackling to the gold and black lacquer ground, requiring restoration, this however does not affect the image. A few small nicks and shallow surface scratches throughout. The paper lining of the interior visibly torn.

The practice of decorating lacquer vessels with highly convincing imitations of sword fittings is generally attributed to Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891), one of the most innovative lacquer artists of the Meiji period. According to Sawaguchi Goichi’s seminal study Nihon shikko no kenkyu (1933), such designs were often created using negative plaster molds, into which successive layers of lacquer were built up in reverse. Once released, these elements were applied to the surface of the object, resulting in astonishingly lifelike representations of metalwork. This technique also explains the recurrence of identical motifs across multiple works, both signed and unsigned.

Literature comparison:
Compare a closely related lacquer cabinet for inro, by Shibata Zeshin, Meiji period, probably c. 1888, 30.4 cm long, illustrated in Meiji no Takara: Treasures of Imperial Japan - The Nasser D. Khalili Collection, The Kibo Foundation, 1995, Shibata Zeshin, no. 72.

Auction comparison:
Compare a closely related polychrome lacquer cabinet, decorated with sword fittings in the style of Shibata Zeshin, Meiji period, late 19th to early 20th century, 62 cm long, at Bonhams, Fine Japanese Art, London, 16 May 2024, lot 87 (sold for GBP 17,920 or approx. EUR 21,500 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing).

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拍品估价:7,500 - 15,000 欧元 起拍价格:7,500 欧元  买家佣金:

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