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Box: MAR.O.77 & A-1912

Object information

Awaiting location update

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Box, lacquer. Rectangular box with shallow sides and a seated lid (A). The black ground is speckled with gold of varying density and decorated in gold, silver-grey, brown, red and aogai (small pieces of blue-green inlaid shell) to resemble a book. On the top left corner of the lid is the book title (Third Chapter of Genji) in gold characters reserved on a black ground speckled with gold in a rectangular panel. Around the book title are rushes and plantain leaves and to the lower left is a spray of red and gold Chinese bellflower (kikyo) and bush-clover (hagi). The sides are decorated with fine horizontal gold lines simulating a book with aogai corners and red bindings. The base is decorated with irises in gold and grey and red berried shrubs on a black and gold speckled ground. The inside of the lid is decorated with a spray of red carnations and an inscription in gold 'Love is as bright as Spring's first day and as light as the breeze then blowing; love is as pure as the flowers yet burns fiercer far than the flame o`er the river flowing', on a black ground powdered with gold. The inside of the lower section is decorated with sticks and a red flame burning in a wicker basket suspended over a winding river with rocks and carnations and hills beyond on a black and gold powdered ground.

Legal notes

C.B. Marlay Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 1.8 cm
Length: 10.7 cm
Width: 7.6 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 shell (animal material)

Materials used in production

Lacquer

Techniques used in production

Lacquering : Box, lacquer, decorated with aogai (small pieces of blue-green inlaid shell)

Identification numbers

Accession number: MAR.O.77 & A-1912
Primary reference Number: 24121
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/24121 Accessed: 2024-10-13 11:15:39

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/24121 |title=Box |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-10-13 11:15:39|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-24121

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