Japanese Brown Lacquer Rinpa Style Document Box with Mother of Pearl Inlay

A high quality, antique, Japanese black lacquer document box. It has an external design of gold maki e plum blossoms. In Japanese culture plum blossom symbolises the beginning of Spring, having its own festival, the Ume Matsuri, alongside the more famous cherry blossom festival...

A vintage Japanese Tsuzuri bako, writing box. with an unusual, deeply carved relief of Japanese sarcandra glabra, a woody herbal sub-shrub native to Asia with deep green glossy leave...

A Japanese Wakasa lacquer folder to carry poems and paintings. It has a silver raised Togidashi maki-e design of cherry blossom, created by lay...

A distinctive pair of Japanese black lacquer ikebana flower troughs. The two sections, designed in harmony, allow a generous opportunity for creative arr...

A Japanese writing box with ink stone (known as Suzuribako) with exquisite maki-e decoration circa late Meiji to early Taisho period (1890s-1930s)...

A fine and elegant Korean black lacquer and abalone mother of pearl inlay "longevity" box, circa 1930s, Korea. The box, most likely used to sto...

A large Japanese lacquer box with elaborate Maki-e design from Meiji period, (mid-late 19th century). The generous size of the box was reser...

A Japanese black lacquer box with mother of pearl inlays circa early 20th century, end of Meiji period. It was likely to be used to store inkstone or other scholarly items. The piece displays several interesting characteristics that appear puzzling initially. First, the form is not typical Japanese, but more Chinese and Korean, with its scalloped base. Second, the decoration of MOP inlays also suggests a Korean and Chinese affiliation, especially with the linear borders and the scrolling cloud patters on the sides of the box. These two observations suggest that the box may be from Ryukyu Island instead of Japanese mainland. Third, strikingly in the center of the cover, a bold quarterly floral pattern outlined with MOP was filled with a striking mottled red lacquer using tsugaru nuri...