A RARE LACQUER KENDAI (LECTERN)

A RARE LACQUER KENDAI (LECTERN)
Japan, dated 1906
The base of rectangular form with rounded corners and supported on a short foot, the exterior of rich, dense nashiji, the front with a storage drawer fitted with a lobed metal handle, opening to reveal a sparser nashiji ground to the interior, the sides and back finely lacquered in gold and colored takamaki-e with inlays of mother-of-pearl to depict a majestic peacock amid blossoming prunus branches. The top of the base with two recesses to insert the separately modeled feet of the reading stand similarly lacquered with blossoming prunus and connected at the bottom by a panel further decorated in gold hiramaki-e with sumikiri kaku ni Omodaka mon, the reading stand with two foliate-incised metal fittings suspending silk tassels.
HEIGHT 49.5 cm (total), WIDTH 51.5 (the reading stand)
Condition: A large crack to the reading stand (this can easily be covered). Some general wear, age cracks, losses to lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay.
The wood storage box with an inscription to the back of the cover:
兵庫縣西ノ宮町辰馬悦蔵殿ヨリ明治三拾九年十二月二十八日御見臺贈与セラルゝ、大塚清質
"Hyogo-ken Nishinomiya-cho Tatsuuma Etsuzo dono yori, Meiji sanjukyunen junigatsu nijuhachi nichi, on Kendai zoyo sera ruru, Ootsuka Seishichi" [This lectern table was given to me (Ootsuka Seishichi) from Tatsuuma Etsuzo whose residence is Nishinomiya-cho of Hyogo Prefecture on the 28th of December in Meiji 39 (1906)].