Wood and lacquer cabinet with nine drawers, decorated with inlay depicting birds, trees and flowers, Japan, ca.1800 - 1830.

Pinewood with black lacquered surface (except bottoms of drawers). Decoration inlaid in mother-of-pearl, awabi-shell and other shells, coloured red, green, brown, white, and in other colours. Rectangular form with flat top, front and sides, mounted on a black wood stand with four turned legs. In front, along the bottom, is a line of three drawers decorated on the fronts; (left) with peonies in colours, (centre) with a grasshopper in a garden in brown, and (right) chrysanthemums in colours. Above is a pair of double-doors with a large sunken quatrefoil panels surrounded by borders of swastika pattern; the left-hand panel shows a pair of small green-headed, red breasted birds on a branch; the right-hand panel, a large brown bird of eagle type under a tree. The open few doors reveal and asymmetrical drawer system as follows:
above: on the left a column of 2 deep drawers decorated with a lake-scene showing birds walking and in flight.
below: on the left a column of 2 deep drawers decorated with birds on flowering branches. On the right, a column of three shallow drawers decorated with birds on flowering branches.
The insides of the double doors show birds perched in flowering shrubs. On the left-end, a pair of deer and kid under a tree; on the right end, a pair of birds perched in a flowering shrub with four toy dogs playing below. On the top, a pair of monkeys with offspring on the ground, and a fourth monkey in a tree.

Adderley Gift

This style of coloured shell inlay developed in Nagasaki towards 1800. This cabinet was said to have been brought back from the Far East by George Burn, an officer in the Royal Navy. It may have belonged to Burn's father John, who was based in the Canton area of China in 1802.

W.11:1-1936