



Lot 12*
Shibata Zeshin 柴田是真 (1807-1891) URUSHI-E (LACQUER PAINTING) OF MARE'S-TAIL, FERNS, AND BUTTERFLY 杉菜蕨胡蝶図額装漆絵 Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1880-1890
5 November 2014, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £10,625 inc. premium
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Shibata Zeshin 柴田是真 (1807-1891) URUSHI-E (LACQUER PAINTING) OF MARE'S-TAIL, FERNS, AND BUTTERFLY 杉菜蕨胡蝶図額装漆絵
Meiji era (1868-1912), circa 1880-1890
Urushi (lacquer) on paper, the foreground embellished with gold flakes, depicting three warabi (edible ferns), one of them placed so the head is out of view and another with a butterfly perched on its top, two fertile heads of sugina (mare's-tail), and two tall and several smaller sterile stems of sugina
Signed Zeshin 是真 with seal Tairyūkyo 対柳居
Overall 45.4 × 42.3 cm (17 7/8 × 16 5/8 in.)
Image 26.5 × 23.7 cm (10¾ × 9 3/8 in.)
With cloth-bound storage box (2).
Urushi (lacquer) on paper, the foreground embellished with gold flakes, depicting three warabi (edible ferns), one of them placed so the head is out of view and another with a butterfly perched on its top, two fertile heads of sugina (mare's-tail), and two tall and several smaller sterile stems of sugina
Signed Zeshin 是真 with seal Tairyūkyo 対柳居
Overall 45.4 × 42.3 cm (17 7/8 × 16 5/8 in.)
Image 26.5 × 23.7 cm (10¾ × 9 3/8 in.)
With cloth-bound storage box (2).
Footnotes
As in the box with the moon and mare's-tail (lot 5), Zeshin depicted the latter plant in different stages of development, in this case also in conjunction with stems of edible fern, enabling the viewer to pinpoint the season as late spring. This precision reflects the influence of Sakai Hōitsu (1761-1828), an important Edo-based painter of the previous generation who transformed the Rinpa style of decorative nature painting by lending it a new naturalism and sense of time and place. For a similar treatment of this theme by Zeshin, also in urushi-e, see Erik Thomsen 2013, cat. no. 15.