Toshi (Iizuka Toyo III, active 18th/19th century)A two-case lacquer inroEdo period (1615-1868), 18th/19th centuryThe small inro bearing a black-lacquer ground sprinkled with hirame and decorated with a horse tethered to an elaborate hitching post in iro-e takamaki-e, the hitching post inscribed Go Mofu no hitsu i (Inspired after the brush of Meng-fu) and signed Toshi and with a kao 3in (7.7cm) high注脚ProvenanceE. A. Wrangham Collection, sold Bonhams, London, The Wrangham Collection of Japanese Art, Part III, May 15, 2012, lot 284Wrangham Collection, no.2121Purchased from Trudel Klefisch, Cologne, 1997The Yuan-dynasty painter Zhao Mengfu (1254-1322) specialized in paintings of horses.