Casket with ivory columns, decorated with a river scene, cranes, a bridge and dragons; the interior is decorated with a moonlit landscape with pagoda, buildings and galleries; gold, silver, black lacquer and ivory; Kyoto, Japan; 1630-1635.

A Renaissance-form casket decorated on the four main sides around the body on the exterior with a river scene with cranes and a bridge in carved wood covered in black lacquer; at each of the four corners are ornate vertical ivory columns decorated with dragons in gold and black hiramaki-e and takamaki-e lacquer. The upper part of the casket is in the form of a lid which lifts up to reveal, on the reverse, and interior, a moonlit, mountainous landscape at the water's edge with a pagoda, buildings and galleries in gold and silver hiramaki-e and takamaki-e lacquer with gold and silver details; in the centre is an inverted frame with a geometric pattern in gold and silver hiramaki-e lacquer, enclosing undecorated lustrous black lacquer; the interior well of the casket is covered with nashi-ji lacquer. All edges of the casket are decorated with borders of intricate and detailed geometric and floral scrolls in gold and silver hiramaki-elacquer on a black lacquer ground.

Purchased from J. M. Whitehead, for £140, accessioned in 1868. This acquisition information reflects that found in the Asia Department registers, as part of a 2022 provenance research project.
Matthew Digby Wyatt, the museum's Art Referee, highly recommended the purchase of this object. He thought it was 'one of the finest specimens of Japanese art and old lac-work' he had ever seen. He reports that the object belonged to the late Lord Cadogan (George Cadogan, 3rd Earl Cadogan, 1783-1864)

This object is in the form of a European Renaissance casket, which often incorporated lavish materials such as hardstones or precious metal. With its opulent ivory columns decorated with dragons in lacquer, this casket would have had a similarly luxurious appeal to its European owner. The panels of carved and black-lacquered wood imitate Chinese carved black lacquer.

628 to G-1868