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Box: MAR.O.74 & A-E-1912

Object information

Awaiting location update

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Lacquer box, suzuri-bako (box for writing utensils). Box, lacquer. Rectangular box with rounded corners and an overhanging lid (A). The interior has three compartments with an inkstone(B) in the centre and two removable positions (C) and (D), the latter (D) containing the water-dropper (E). The black roiro (black lacquer polished to a high gloss) ground is decorated in gold, silver-grey, brown, red, black, green and aogai (small pieces of inlaid blue-green shell) in takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design) with sword furniture. The three tsuba are decorated with different designs, one with birds in flight over waves, one with a pavilion on a gyobu nashiji ground (nashiji using large flakes of gold placed individually rather than sprinkled) and one with sprays of leaves and fruit in red and gold on a matt black ground. The four kodzuka (`little hilt') are finely and individually decorated, one in aogai with gold cranes in flight; one in brown lacquer with red and gold flowering plum; one with two puppies on a red ground with gold sprays of flowers, and the fourth kodzuka has gold insects on a brown lacquer ground.
One kogai (a sort of flat pin often found in the sheath of a Japanese sabre on the opposite side to the kodzuka) has a gold blade and the end is decorated with shells on a red ground, and the other has a browny-gold blade decorated with a gourd vine in gold reserved on a silver-grey gyobu nashiji ground. The inside of the lid is decorated with a large new moon above branches of flowering plum on a nashiji ground. The compartment (C) has three flower heads on a gold nashiji (shimmering spangles) ground with a black and sprinkled gold base. Compartment (D) is similarly decorated with scattered flower heads on a gold nashiji ground and is inset with the mizuire (water dropper) (E). The mizuire is silver plated with two detachable gadrooned surrounds of copper alloy; these are possibly gilded. The inkstone has a fundame (matt gold) edge. The inside of the lower section is black nashiji reserved with two rectangular gold nashiji panels decorated with flower heads.

Legal notes

C.B. Marlay Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 4.9 cm
Length: 23.6 cm
Width: 21.4 cm

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1912) by Marlay, Charles Brinsley

Dating

Edo Period (1615-1868)#
Circa 1700 - 1868

Components of the work

Decoration composed of gilt ( possibly) shell (animal material) gold copper alloy silver

Materials used in production

Lacquer

Techniques used in production

Lacquering : Box, lacquer, decorated in takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design), aogai (small pieces of inlaid blue-green shell), nashiji and gyobu nashiji (nashiji using large flakes of gold placed individually rather than sprinkled)

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: rectangular white label with a grey border, 'Lf' in red and '3466' and some characters inscribed in black ink

  • Text: 'Lf' '3466'
  • Location: Affixed to the base of the inkstone
  • Method of creation: Inscribed in red and black ink
  • Type: Label

Identification numbers

Accession number: MAR.O.74 & A-E-1912
Primary reference Number: 24090
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Wednesday 11 January 2023 Last processed: Thursday 3 August 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Box" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/24090 Accessed: 2024-03-29 08:21:49

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/24090 |title=Box |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-03-29 08:21:49|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-24090

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