Box
Category
Objets de vertu
Date
Unknown
Materials
Japanese lacquer (urushi) decorated with gold and silver.
Measurements
35 mm (H)41 mm (W)51 mm (D)
Place of origin
Japan
Order this imageCollection
Polesden Lacey, Surrey
NT 1247162.2
Summary
One of a set of six boxes inside a cosmetics box (tebako), Japanese lacquer (urushi) decorated with gold and silver, rectangular with an overhanging lid (kabusebuta, mirroring the shape of the larger box), made in Japan, probably nineteenth century. Decorated on the lid with a jar festively adorned with a cloth and a tasselled cord under a foxglove tree (Paulownia tomentosa) in low-relief lacquer (hiramaki-e) against a ground of orange-toned lacquer with gold flakes (‘pear-skin ground’ or nashiji).
Provenance
Given by Queen Mary (1867–1953) to Dame Margaret Greville DBE (1863–1942) and bequeathed by the latter to the National Trust. Listed as being in the Tea Room at Polesden Lacey in the 1943 probate inventory (p. 29).
Marks and inscriptions
To lift out small boxes, take out / tray and push finger through hole at bottom (inscribed on note inside box)