JAPAN, 1840-1880

During the latter part of the ninteenth century, Japanese workshops began to expand their repertoire of forms to include snuff bottles, most likely in response to the growing demand from Western collectors. This bottle is decorated in a variety of lacquer techniques that were very much in vogue in Japan from the latter half of the 18th century till the mid 19th century. Designed in gold and silver hiramaki-e and takamaki-e, ('flat' and 'raised' lacquer painting) and embellished with hirame and kirigane (cut gold and gold flakes) against a nashiji (pearskin) background, it illustrates nicely the wide array of decorative skills common among lacquer artists of Edo-period Japan.

This bottle won first prize in the organic category at the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society's 1972 convention in Boston, Massachusetts.