A RARE SHELL-INLAID NANBAN LACQUER CABINETJapan, late 16th to early 17th century, Momoyama (1573-1615) to early Edo period (1615-1868)Of wide rectangular form with two side-hung doors, one with a keyhole, which open to reveal the interior typically fitted with ten drawers of varying size, arranged symmetrically in rows. The doors and sides richly decorated in gold hiramaki-e and mother-of-pearl inlays on the black-lacquered wood, the front with a shaped panel enclosing a ho-o bird amid dense leafy floral blossoms, reserved against by a minutely inlaid dotted ground, surrounded by a shippo-tsunagi (linked-cash) border, the sides similarly decorated with circular panels enclosing a rabbit and bird, respectively, each surrounded by a diapered border. The backs of the doors and fronts of the drawers similarly lacquered and inlaid with scrolling foliage and swirling ponds.SIZE 35.9 x 52.1 x 30.2 cmCondition: Good condition, commensurate with age. Extensive wear, age cracks, losses to inlay and lacquer, old repairs, touchups, nicks, scratches, some fittings possibly renewed.In the late sixteenth century, Japanese lacquer makers had a global clientele and vied to come up with innovative designs. They produced portable desks with drawers, such as this one, for the European, and especially the Portuguese, market. The style is known as nanban (literally, “southern barbarian”), meaning foreign.Crafted in Kyoto's lacquer workshops alongside quite different wares intended for elite Japanese clients, these kinds of Nanban coffers and cabinets decorated in gold hiramaki-e and shell were among the earliest Japanese artefacts to reach Asian and European markets, starting two or three decades after the first landfall by Portuguese adventurers in the mid-sixteenth century. Celebrated today for their lavish, innovative technique and dense ornamentation (inspired in part by wares from other parts of Asia), such pieces brought the Japanese genius for design to global attention and ensured that Japan would be synonymous with 'lacquer' until the present day.Auction comparison: Compare a related Nanban cabinet, also with two side-hung doors and depicting rabbits, of smaller size (24 cm x 29.2 cm x 22 cm), dated to the Momoyama period, at Bonhams, 6 November 2014, London, lot 279 (sold for 11,250 GBP). Compare also a related fall-front Nanban cabinet with similar decoration at Bonhams, 13 May 2021, London, lot 56 (sold for 25,250 GBP) and another at Sotheby's, 17 April 2019, Paris, lot 80 (sold for 20,000 EUR).
