Brass Lacquer

A large vintage Chinese red cinnabar box with deep relief carved lid depicting peonies, trees and a landscape with a palace. The round box has...

A rare, high quality lacquered portable jû'bako (tiered food container/stacked picnic box) fitted with a removable vertical safety bar - housing a nice secret – decorated with a refi...

An antique Korean lacquered small chest of drawers with Mother-of-Pearl inlays circa 19th century (late Joseon Dynasty). The tabletop box with multiple small drawers of various sizes...

A richly detailed Indian dowry box dating to the late 18th century, crafted during the final decades of the Mughal Empire. This pyramidal casket is construct...

A crisply carved antique Chinese red cinnabar lacquer lidded round box with blue enamel interior and brass fittings. The "dragon's blood" trinket box has a fine peony, foliate and fl...

Antique Japanese late Edo / Tokugawa period Hibachi used for burning coal, as a portable heater, and as a heating device for a pot of tea. In modern times they work well as a planter...

Superb rectangular ‘Rinpa School’-style black lacquer suzuri’bako (writing box) with a slightly arched well-fitted overhanging cover with rounded corners. The lid with a design of a gosho’guruma (ox-drawn carriage for Heian-era nobles) featuring golden hiramaki-e (low-relief lacquer design) and takamaki-e (high-relief lacquer design), inlays of lead and shiny mother-of-pearl (raden). The design continues along the sides. The reverse of the lid decorated with two large curving pine trees (matsu) executed in the same way, but also with intricate dots of tiny pieces of inlaid blue mother-of-pearl along the golden trunk. The interior shaped to hold various scholar’s accessories, including a partially gold lacquered inkstone (suzuri) and a bronze waterdropper (suiteki) shaped like a mythical minogame. The interior inscribed ‘Hokkyô Kôrin zô’ (Made by Hokkyô Kôrin). Referring to the design being in style of the master Ogata Kôrin, but the actual lacquer artist is unknown. It is a homage to Kôrin by an artist that followed the school of Rinpa. Including black lacquer wooden tomobako (tomobako). The Rinpa School was a key part of the Edo period revival of indigenous Japanese artistic interests described by the term yamato-e. Paintings, textiles, ceramics, and lacquerwares were decorated by Rinpa artists with vibrant colours applied in a highly decorative and patterned manner. Favoured themes, which often contained evocative references to nature and the seasons, were drawn from Japanese literature, notably The Tale of Genji, The Tales of Ise...

Handsome Chinese red lacquer and brass ice chest, planter, accent table with galvanized insert and lid on hoof foot style removable base. This piece is in wonderful vintage condition...

A richly colored red lacquered Chinese storage trunk, dating to the early 20th century, featuring original brass hardware and hand-painted naturalistic decorations. The lid showcases...

With slightly domed removable lid opening to an open interior, conforming case with central gilded samurai family crest or Mon depicting a butterfly. Brass trim and handles. Richards...

English octagonal black lacquered and gilt stenciled figural pagoda hinged one drawer sewing box with exterior gilt stenciled dragon motif, interior gilt stenciled floral motif, orig...

This box with many drawers is a Japanese tabako-bon, or 'tobacco tray,' used to store tobacco and smoking accessories. Believed to have evolved from the t...

A large Chinese basin or bowl crafted out of peachwood, with red lacquer and forged bronze braces, circa 1880.

This lacquered 18th century Edo period altar table was probably made for the private shrine of an aristocratic home. There, it would have been placed before an image of a deity, and ...

A rare pair of Kyoto-Nagasaki style lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlaid knife urns Edo period, early 19th century Measures: Height 71 x diameter 30 cm ?Formed as urns with vertically lifting covers and elongated finials, revealing fitted green velvet lined interiors for knives, decorated overall with birds, flowering stems, faux-fluting and oval panels with landscapes. The square plinth is raised on four bracket feet. Inside the lifting cover of one of the urns are Japanese characters, supposedly indications of some code by the craftsman. A closely related knife urn, now in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (inv. E 73115), was acquired in Nagasaki by Captain Samuel Gardner Derby of the Margareth of Salem in 1801. Captain Gardner Derby traded in Nagasaki under charter from the VOC (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie), the Dutch East India Company. Between 1797 and 1814 Holland was occupied by the French and from 1811 until 1816 Java by the English. During these periods practically no Dutch shipping was possible between Holland and Batavia (Jakarta) or between Batavia (Jakarta) and Nagasaki. To maintain a minimum amount of shipping between Batavia (Jakarta) and Nagasaki, between 1797 and 1807, the VOC chartered mainly American ships. American captains and officers ordered and bought mainly lacquered furniture in an American-English style, completely different from what the Dutch up till then had ordered. The present knife urns were possibly also ordered and acquired by Captain Gardner Derby during his stay in Deshima/Nagasaki in 1801. Another similarly neoclassical shaped knife urn in the collection of the Ashmolean Museum Oxford (inv. 1996.17) appears to be signed by woodworker Kiyotomo koreo tsukuru (Kiyomoto made this). The same name, together with an address in the Sanjo-Teramachi District of Kyoto, has been found inside a fragmentary urn in a private collection. This is an indication that European-style furniture was not only lacquered in Japan but made there as well. This undoubtedly is not only true for knife-urns, but all European- style furniture lacquered in Japan after circa 1800 was made by Japanese furniture makers...

An extremely fine and important Japanese lacquer cabinet with gilt-copper mounts for the European market Edo period, late 17th century The pictorial style decorated rectangular...

An impressive and large Japanese 'Namban' transition-style lacquer coffer with fine gilt copper mounts on a French Re´gence base, possibly by André-Charles Boulle (1642-1732) Kyoto, 1640-1650, the base 18th century ?The coffer with shaped cartouches on a nashiji ground on the lid, front and sides, with fine decorations in various techniques: takimaki-e (high relief), tsuke-gaki (drawing with narrow lacquer lines and over sprinkling with gold and silver), usuniku-takamei-e (demi relief), kimekomi (pushed inside) and accents of kirigane (small geometrical metal mosaics). Inside the cartouche on the lid a landscape with volcanos...