IDENTIFIERS ----------- id: 24090 accession number: MAR.O.74 & A-E-1912 DATE AUDIT ---------- created: Saturday 6 August 2011 updated: Monday 29 April 2024 DESCRIPTIVE DATA ---------------- object type: Lacquer box, suzuri-bako (box for writing utensils). Box, lacquer. Rectangular box with rounded corners and an overhanging lid (A). The interior has three compartments with an inkstone(B) in the centre and two removable positions (C) and (D), the latter (D) containing the water-dropper (E). The black roiro (black lacquer polished to a high gloss) ground is decorated in gold, silver-grey, brown, red, black, green and aogai (small pieces of inlaid blue-green shell) in takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design) with sword furniture. The three tsuba are decorated with different designs, one with birds in flight over waves, one with a pavilion on a gyobu nashiji ground (nashiji using large flakes of gold placed individually rather than sprinkled) and one with sprays of leaves and fruit in red and gold on a matt black ground. The four kodzuka (`little hilt') are finely and individually decorated, one in aogai with gold cranes in flight; one in brown lacquer with red and gold flowering plum; one with two puppies on a red ground with gold sprays of flowers, and the fourth kodzuka has gold insects on a brown lacquer ground. One kogai (a sort of flat pin often found in the sheath of a Japanese sabre on the opposite side to the kodzuka) has a gold blade and the end is decorated with shells on a red ground, and the other has a browny-gold blade decorated with a gourd vine in gold reserved on a silver-grey gyobu nashiji ground. The inside of the lid is decorated with a large new moon above branches of flowering plum on a nashiji ground. The compartment (C) has three flower heads on a gold nashiji (shimmering spangles) ground with a black and sprinkled gold base. Compartment (D) is similarly decorated with scattered flower heads on a gold nashiji ground and is inset with the mizuire (water dropper) (E). The mizuire is silver plated with two detachable gadrooned surrounds of copper alloy; these are possibly gilded. The inkstone has a fundame (matt gold) edge. The inside of the lower section is black nashiji reserved with two rectangular gold nashiji panels decorated with flower heads. title: box LICENSING --------- text license status: CC0 image license status: CC-BY-NC-SA OWNERSHIP --------- instutition: The Fitzwilliam Museum department: Applied Arts collection: C. B. Marlay creditline: C.B. Marlay Bequest STABLE URL ---------- url: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/24090 TECHNIQUES ---------- box, lacquer, decorated in takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design), aogai (small pieces of inlaid blue-green shell), nashiji and gyobu nashiji (nashiji using large flakes of gold placed individually rather than sprinkled) lacquering CATEGORIES ------ category: lacquer DATING ------ creation date: 1700 - 1868 creation date earliest: 1700 creation date latest: 1868 culture: Edo Period (1615-1868) CREATORS -------- maker: Unknown DIMENSIONS ---------- dimension: Height units: cm value: 4.9 dimension: Length units: cm value: 23.6 dimension: Width units: cm value: 21.4