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Book rest: MAR.O.168 & A-1912

Object information

Awaiting location update

Maker(s)

Unknown

Entities

Categories

Description

Book rest, lacquer with silver metal mounts and handle. The book rest sits on a central upright attached to a rectangular base with a drawer (A) and is decorated in gold and silver. The nashiji (shimmering spangles) ground is decorated in takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design), hiramakie (low-relief sprinkled design) and heidatsu (cut sheet-gold or, as in this example, sheet-silver applied to a lacquer base) on the book rest with a prunus tree beside a stream with clouds overhead, and on the rectangular base with bamboo and prunus beside a stream. The edges are plain gold; the sides are decorated with formal flowers and scrolling foliage. The front of the drawer is similarly decorated and has a silver metal drop handle attached to three finely tooled flower heads. The central upright is decorated with scrolling flowers and fitted top and bottom with silver metal mounts which are finely tooled with scrolling foliage. The underside of the book rest, the interior of the drawer and the box are nashiji. The base is nashiji and there is a removable circular wooden plug crudely painted in gold, inserted in the centre of the base.

Legal notes

C.B. Marlay Bequest

Measurements and weight

Height: 57.0 cm
Length: 44.4 cm
Width: 25.4 cm

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1912) by Marlay, Charles Brinsley

Dating

Edo Period (1615-1868)#
19th Century
Production date: circa AD 1820

Components of the work

Mounts, Handle composed of metal ( silver-coloured)
Plug composed of wood (plant material)
Decoration composed of silver

Materials used in production

Lacquer

Techniques used in production

Lacquering : Book rest, lacquer with silver metal mounts and handle, decorated in takamakie (high-relief sprinkled design), hiramakie (low-relief sprinkled design) and heidatsu (sheet-silver applied to lacquer base), interior of drawer and box, and base are nashiji (shimmering spangles) ground

Inscription or legends present

Inscription present: small brown luggage label

  • Text: Reading stand, about 1820. Genuine work, made for the Japanese market, though regarded in Japan as of a bad period. To be kept. O.C. Raphael, July, 1934. Marlay Bequest, 1912
  • Method of creation: Inscribed in black ink
  • Type: Label

Identification numbers

Accession number: MAR.O.168 & A-1912
Primary reference Number: 24258
Stable URI

Audit data

Created: Saturday 6 August 2011 Updated: Wednesday 4 January 2017 Last processed: Friday 8 December 2023

Associated departments & institutions

Owner or interested party: The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department: Applied Arts

Citation for print

This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:

The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "Book rest" Web page available at: https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/24258 Accessed: 2024-10-14 16:48:21

Citation for Wikipedia

To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:

{{cite web|url=https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/id/object/24258 |title=Book rest |author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-10-14 16:48:21|publisher=The University of Cambridge}}

API call for this record

To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:

https://collection.beta.fitz.ms/api/v1/objects/object-24258

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