A rare, early portable lacquer cabinet in Nanban style


Momoyama period (1573-1615), late 16th/early 17th centuryOf black-lacquered wood with nine drawers, two half-width drawers at the top and bottom and four smaller drawers to either side of a double-height central drawer fitted with a lockplate, decorated in gold and silver hiramaki-e and shell inlay with panels of typical early Nanban motifs including kikyo (Chinese bellflower), dense kuzu (kudzu vine) with foliage, tachibana orange and Japanese camellia enclosed within geometric shell borders with additional formal decoration in gold hiramaki-e, the interiors black lacquer, the metal fittings gilt-copper, the drop-front door a replacement. 24.5cm x 25.2cm x 23.9cm (9 5/8in x 9 7/8in x 9 3/8in). (2).
|For early Nanban lacquer cabinets of almost identical construction and size, see James C.Y. Watt and Barbara B. Ford, East Asian Lacquer: The Florence and Herbert Irving Collection, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991, cat. no.105 and Joe Earle, Japanese Lacquer: The Denys Eyre Bower Collection at Chiddingstone Castle, London, Christie's Books, 2000, cat. no.10.