![A Lacquer Hiire [Incense Ash Container]](https://staging.christies.com/img/LotImages/2016/CKS/2016_CKS_13127_0059_001(a_lacquer_hiire_incense_ash_container_momoyama_-_edo_period030512).jpg?w=1)
![A Lacquer Hiire [Incense Ash Container]](https://staging.christies.com/img/LotImages/2016/CKS/2016_CKS_13127_0059_000(a_lacquer_hiire_incense_ash_container_momoyama_-_edo_period030459).jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
This small box, described by James Orange as “a very fine specimen of old work in perfect condition”, is a striking instance of the influence of Chinese Ming dynasty lacquer on the Japanese lacquer style. The zigzag fence foreground is seen on many Ming pictorial lacquers, as is the ogival border, and this type of design is especially associated with 17th century export lacquers, but the octagonal shape and the scattered chrysanthemum motifs on the interior surfaces are in a more Japanese idiom, suggesting that this box may have been destined for the domestic market; this is also more likely in view of the fact that most if not all of the pieces in the Orange catalogue were acquired in Japan.
For another, slightly earlier, example of a lacquer box with landscapes in Chinese style borders which could, like the present lot, be either a domestic or an export piece, see
Kyoto National Museum, Makie, shikkoku to ogon no Nihonbi [The beauty of black and gold Japanese lacquer] (Kyoto, 1995), cat. no. 128
Orange, a resident of Hong Kong, formed his collection during many visits to Japan in the quarter of a century preceding 1907; the introduction to his catalogue states that:
The pieces were procured gradually, many before 1890, but there has never been any attempt at forming an "educational" collection, most of the articles were bought either for their good work or good design and not because of age; I started with the mania for having "pretty" things and think I have succeeded fairly well...My visits to Japan were holidays in a busy life and principally devoted to journeyings in the country, where often specimens of work could be obtained at prices far more moderate than in towns and treaty ports.
It is clear that Orange moved freely in the higher echelons of expatriate society in Japan, counting among the British friends who helped him with the formation of his collection "T.B. Glover, B.H. Chamberlain and J. Conder". Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911) of Nagasaki amassed a fortune from dealing in arms and other military supplies and was an advisor to the great statesman Ito Hirobumi, while Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935) lived in Japan for thirty-eight years and became the greatest early British scholar of Japanese. The architect Joseph Josiah Conder (1852-1920) is perhaps best known today as the friend and pupil of the eccentric "demon of painting" Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89).
For another, slightly earlier, example of a lacquer box with landscapes in Chinese style borders which could, like the present lot, be either a domestic or an export piece, see
Kyoto National Museum, Makie, shikkoku to ogon no Nihonbi [The beauty of black and gold Japanese lacquer] (Kyoto, 1995), cat. no. 128
Orange, a resident of Hong Kong, formed his collection during many visits to Japan in the quarter of a century preceding 1907; the introduction to his catalogue states that:
The pieces were procured gradually, many before 1890, but there has never been any attempt at forming an "educational" collection, most of the articles were bought either for their good work or good design and not because of age; I started with the mania for having "pretty" things and think I have succeeded fairly well...My visits to Japan were holidays in a busy life and principally devoted to journeyings in the country, where often specimens of work could be obtained at prices far more moderate than in towns and treaty ports.
It is clear that Orange moved freely in the higher echelons of expatriate society in Japan, counting among the British friends who helped him with the formation of his collection "T.B. Glover, B.H. Chamberlain and J. Conder". Thomas Blake Glover (1838-1911) of Nagasaki amassed a fortune from dealing in arms and other military supplies and was an advisor to the great statesman Ito Hirobumi, while Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935) lived in Japan for thirty-eight years and became the greatest early British scholar of Japanese. The architect Joseph Josiah Conder (1852-1920) is perhaps best known today as the friend and pupil of the eccentric "demon of painting" Kawanabe Kyosai (1831-89).