Lacquer box, suzuri-bako (box for writing utensils). Box, lacquer with silver metal rims. Rectangular box with a seated lid (A) The interior has a frame (B) containing an inset silver water pot and an inkstone (C). The black lacquer and mura-nashiji ground (nashiji with contrasting areas of densely and thinly packed gold flakes) is decorated in gold, red and silver-grey lacquer, inlaid eggshell and aogai (small pieces of blue-green inlaid shell) in takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design) with five dragon flies in flight. The dragon flies have intricately designed wings and bulbous eyes; one has purple and blue-green aogai wings, a gold body and gold eyes; one has black wings with gold markings, a gold body and purple inlaid eyes; a red lacquer dragonfly with black markings and aogai eyes; one has a black and gold body, wings inlaid with eggshell forming a white and gold crackle ground and inlaid purple shell eyes; the fifth has gold wings and aogai eyes. The mikayeshi (inside of the lid) has a partly black roiro (black lacquer polished to a deep gloss) and partly nashiji (shimmering spangles) ground and is decorated with a spider in his web watching a dragon fly with red and green wings which is trapped in the web. The removable tray is nashiji with an inset silver mizuire (water dropper); the sides of the inkstone are fundame (matt gold). The interior and the base are nashiji.
C.B. Marlay Bequest
Height: 2.6 cm
Length: 17.0 cm
Width: 15.4 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1912) by Marlay, Charles Brinsley
Edo Period (1615-1868)#
Circa
1700
-
1868
Rims
composed of
metal
( silver-coloured)
Decoration
composed of
shell (animal material)
eggshell (animal material)
gold
Lacquering : Box, lacquer, with silver metal rims, black lacquer with a mura-nashiji ground (nashiji with contrasting areas of densely and thinly packed gold flakes), decorated with inlaid eggshell, lacquer and aogai (small pieces of inlaid blue-green shell) in takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design), the lid has a partly black roiro and partly nashiji ground, interior and base are nashiji
Inscription present: white rectangular label with a grey border, under 958, two lines of character beneath, 'LH' is in red
Inscription present: similar label to above
Accession number: MAR.O.75 & A-C-1912
Primary reference Number: 24103
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
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/24103 Accessed: 2024-04-19 05:04:14
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/24103
|title=Box
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-04-19 05:04:14|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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-24103
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