An export lacquer cabinetEdo period (1615-1868), second quarter of the 17th centuryThe rectangular cabinet fitted with hinged doors and decorated in gold and silver hiramaki-e, takamaki-e, nashiji, kirikane and aogai, the top and sides all decorated with shaped panels containing moonlit landscapes, blossoming autumn plants, and an owl perched in a camellia tree, each panel set against a dense gold nashiji ground, the edges finished in bands of geometric design and chrysanthemums and vines, the interior of the doors decorated with blossoming flowers, the removable drawers black lacquer, the silver hardware decorated with chrysanthemum heads and stylized vines 12 1/4 x 16.7/8 x 14 7/8in (31.2 x 42.8 x 37.7cm) 注脚PublishedEdmund J. Lewis and Joe Earle, Shadows and Reflections: Japanese Lacquer Art from the Collection of Edmund J. Lewis at the Honolulu Academy of Arts, Honolulu Academy of Arts, 1996, cat. no. 6The unusually fine decoration of this cabinet, in the style associated with lacquerwares manufactured for the Dutch market starting in about 1620, allows us to associate with it a famous group of pieces dating from the 1630s, several of them special commissions for leading officers of the Dutch East India Company. The landscape panels, in particular, match those special commissions in the quality of their execution and their exotic medley of Japanese with Chinese, Korean and other foreign motifs; see Joe Earle, "Genji Meets Yang Guifei: A Group of Early Japanese Export Lacquers," Transactions of the Oriental Ceramic Society, 47 (1982-3), pp.45-75.