A FINE AND RARE LACQUER BUNKO (DOCUMENT BOX) WITH INTEGRATED SUZURIBAKO (WRITING BOX)

A FINE AND RARE LACQUER BUNKO (DOCUMENT BOX) WITH INTEGRATED SUZURIBAKO (WRITING BOX)
Japan, 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)
Published & Exhibited:
Cornell University, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Scattered Gold and Midnight Gloss: Japanese Lacquer from the Anbinder Collection, 31 March - 8 July 2007.
Of rectangular form with recessed rounded corners and edges in gold fundame and a flush-fitting (inrobuta) cover. The exterior bearing a sparse hirame ground finely decorated in gold and colored takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, and togidashi-e with e-nashiji to depict carp swimming in a pond with aquatic plants, two fish depicted emerging from the water in the manner of the Shijo school of painting.
The interior fitted with a tray (kakego) holding an inkstone (suzuri) and a silvered copper waterdropper (suiteki) in the form of a tortoise. The interior of the cover and the kakego each bearing a sparse hirame ground similarly decorated and with inlays of aogai and gold and silver foil to depict goldfish swimming in a stream with omodaka (arrowhead) and giboshi (hosta). The interior of the box of roiro sprinkled with silver and gold lacquer.
SIZE 12.7 x 25.6 x 33.5 cm
With a wood storage box (tomobako).
Condition: Good condition with some wear, the underside with nicks and light scratches, the cover with minor age cracks. The suzuribako tray with a crack.
Provenance:
Kyoto Gallery, Arts of Pacific Asia, 24 March 2002, New York. The Paul and Helen Anbinder Collection, acquired from the above. Paul Anbinder (b. 1940) is a retired editor who was a director at important publishers including Random House and Hudson Hills. Helen Anbinder (1942-2022) was an education administrator who ran the Inter-village Continuing Education Program for Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Hastings, and Irvington, New York. The couple were avid museumgoers and collectors of art. They donated many books and prints from their collection to their alma mater Cornell University and the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art.