Lot 1*
Shibata Zeshin 柴田是真 (1807–1891) SMALL BOX WITH AUTUMN GRASSES 秋草図素彫小箱 Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1870–1890
10 November 2015, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £18,750 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistShibata Zeshin 柴田是真 (1807–1891) SMALL BOX WITH AUTUMN GRASSES 秋草図素彫小箱
Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1870–1890
A small box with kabusebuta (overhanging lid), the body, with rounded edges, likely constructed using a combination of the magemono (bentwood) and harinuki (layered-paper) techniques, the reddish-brown lacquer ground cut and engraved in subori with a design of susuki and fujibakama plants
Signed in subori inside the lid at lower left Zeshin 是真
3.9 × 8.5 × 7.4 cm (1½ × 3 3/8 × 2 7/8 in.)
Fitted clear-lacquered wooden tomobako storage box inscribed Zeshin saku akikusa-bako 是真作 秋草箱 (Box with autumn plants by Zeshin) and paper label from the Zeshin Hyakunijūnen Tsuizen Kinen Tenkan 是真百廿年追善記念展観 (Zeshin 120th Anniversary Display), held in Tokyo in 2011 (4)
Exhibited and Published
Zeshin Hyakunijūnen Tsuizen Tenkan, 2011
Nezu Bijutsukan 2012, cat. no. 56
A small box with kabusebuta (overhanging lid), the body, with rounded edges, likely constructed using a combination of the magemono (bentwood) and harinuki (layered-paper) techniques, the reddish-brown lacquer ground cut and engraved in subori with a design of susuki and fujibakama plants
Signed in subori inside the lid at lower left Zeshin 是真
3.9 × 8.5 × 7.4 cm (1½ × 3 3/8 × 2 7/8 in.)
Fitted clear-lacquered wooden tomobako storage box inscribed Zeshin saku akikusa-bako 是真作 秋草箱 (Box with autumn plants by Zeshin) and paper label from the Zeshin Hyakunijūnen Tsuizen Kinen Tenkan 是真百廿年追善記念展観 (Zeshin 120th Anniversary Display), held in Tokyo in 2011 (4)
Exhibited and Published
Zeshin Hyakunijūnen Tsuizen Tenkan, 2011
Nezu Bijutsukan 2012, cat. no. 56
Footnotes
In his catalogue note for the 2012 Zeshin exhibition at the Nezu Museum, Takao Yō comments that Zeshin used a single marukebori (curved line-engraving) knife to execute this delicate composition; further information on the subject of the subori technique of carving can be found in Takao 2011b as well as in the Foreword to this catalogue.
For a somewhat larger box by Zeshin with a related autumnal design in different techniques, see Earle 1996, cat. no. 21.
