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Rare 17th Century Japanese Export Lacquer Medical Instrument Box

$41,935.03
£31,217.90
€35,000
CA$57,440.50
A$63,886.38
CHF 33,359.48
MX$777,429.24
NOK 426,051.47
SEK 399,561.12
DKK 266,442.78
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About the Item

A rare Japanese export lacquer medical instrument box Edo-period, 1650-1700 L. 19 x W. 6 x H. 8.5 cm This unconventionally shaped lacquer box, decorated in the pictorial-style, reveals a highly specialist functionality. The cylinder-shaped container with a variety of compartments, drawers, all the original brass ware and a nashiji interior, once contained a set of medical instruments for bleeding and cupping. The originally Chinese procedure of attaching heated glass cups to the body to cure patients of ‘imbalanced humours’ gathered great interest from European physicians stationed in Japan and other Asian trade posts. Bleeding, or bloodletting, on the other hand was an ancient European approach to healing, that was introduced in Asia by Christian missionaries. We know only a few boxes of these kind, which serve as a symbol of medical knowledge exchange, exist. One of them, a transitional style one the whereabouts of which are unknown. A second one, in the pictorial-style, lacking the brass ware interior was auctioned at Christie’s in 1996 (both llustrated in ,Oliver Impey & Christiaan Jo¨rg, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, Hotei Publishing, Leiden, 2005, p. 115). The present one is similar in decoration to the one sold at Christie’s but has the rare interior with all the original brass fittings.
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 3.35 in (8.5 cm)Width: 2.37 in (6 cm)Depth: 7.49 in (19 cm)
  • Style:
    Edo (Of the Period)
  • Materials and Techniques:
    Gold,Lacquer,Lacquered
  • Place of Origin:
  • Period:
  • Date of Manufacture:
    1650-1700
  • Condition:
    Wear consistent with age and use.
  • Seller Location:
    Amsterdam, NL
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU5458233886852

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