A pair of Japanese export lacquer knife boxes with handles
1730-1780
With sloping, hinged lid and a mirror image decoration of figures by a river with bridge in gold lacquer and nashiji on a black ground, lockplate and hinges engraved.
On four claw feet.
H. 37.5 cm
Provenance:
Private collection, The Netherlands
N.B.:
For a comparable knife box in the collection of the Groninger Museum in Groningen, see: Oliver Impey & Christiaan Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer/1580-1850, Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam, 2005, page 172, ill. 400. The authors list this type under ‘Pictorial-style’ lacquer work as distinct from Kyoto-Nagasaki style knife boxes dating from the late 18th century.
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