λ THREE JAPANESE CARD CASES

MEIJI PERIOD, 19TH CENTURY

Two in ivory decorated in Shibayama style with inlays in mother of pearl, coral, stained ivory and metal, one depicting three fish to one side and a sponge gourd to the other, the other case with figures in luxuriant gardens to both sides, the third in lacquer decorated in gold and silver hiramaki-e and nashiji with two shojo drinking out of a large sake jar and with a flowering prunus to the reverse, signed to the side, together with two small circular lacquer boxes and covers decorated with flowers, 12cm x 7cm max. (10)

Provenance: from the collection of Anne Hull-Grundy (1926-1984) and thence by descent.

Hull-Grundy was an important art collector whose bequests of jewellery and netsuke to the British Museum and the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, include some of the finest pieces in the museums' collections. Her principle for acquiring new artworks was: "if you don't fall in love, don't buy it

" and she saw herself as "a large spider sitting at the centre of a web of dealers, salesrooms and museums". She was hoping that through their collection, which also included important Martinware, she and her husband would get "a ticket to life eternal".