Box, lacquer. Rectangular box with shallow sides and a seated lid (A). The black ground is speckled with gold of varying density and decorated in gold, silver-grey, brown, red and aogai (small pieces of blue-green inlaid shell) to resemble a book. On the top left corner of the lid is the book title (Third Chapter of Genji) in gold characters reserved on a black ground speckled with gold in a rectangular panel. Around the book title are rushes and plantain leaves and to the lower left is a spray of red and gold Chinese bellflower (kikyo) and bush-clover (hagi). The sides are decorated with fine horizontal gold lines simulating a book with aogai corners and red bindings. The base is decorated with irises in gold and grey and red berried shrubs on a black and gold speckled ground. The inside of the lid is decorated with a spray of red carnations and an inscription in gold 'Love is as bright as Spring's first day and as light as the breeze then blowing; love is as pure as the flowers yet burns fiercer far than the flame o`er the river flowing', on a black ground powdered with gold. The inside of the lower section is decorated with sticks and a red flame burning in a wicker basket suspended over a winding river with rocks and carnations and hills beyond on a black and gold powdered ground.
C.B. Marlay Bequest
Height: 1.8 cm
Length: 10.7 cm
Width: 7.6 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1912) by Marlay, Charles Brinsley
Edo Period (1615-1868)#
Circa
1700
-
1868
Decoration composed of shell (animal material)
Lacquering : Box, lacquer, decorated with aogai (small pieces of blue-green inlaid shell)
Accession number: MAR.O.77 & A-1912
Primary reference Number: 24121
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Box" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/24121 Accessed: 2024-11-05 08:23:12
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/24121
|title=Box
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-05 08:23:12|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
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https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-24121
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