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Pair of round boxes and covers late eighteenth to early nineteenth century

Black and gold lacquer on wood | 6.5 x 14.6 cm (whole object) | RCIN 70646

Grand Vestibule, Windsor Castle

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  • Pair of circular boxes, with flanged metal liner to the rim to accommodate the matching cover, and lined with gold and orange brocade. The gently domed, black-lacquered top and sides painted in gold, with a vine scroll with superimposed prunus flowers and a prunus spray roundel.

    The boxes are likely for storing a pair of hand mirrors, possibly RCINs 41641.1-2, which correspond in size.

    Provenance

    Almost certainly sent to Queen Victoria by Shōgun Tokugawa Iemochi, 1860.

    The contrasting decoration of gold scrollwork and roundels of peonies on black lacquer matches a zushidana, kurodana and shodana in the Royal Collection (RCINs 26049 and 26051).

    Those three shelves were received by Queen Victoria from Shōgun Tokugawa Iemochi in 1860 and described by Sir Rutherford Alcock (1809–97), the British Consul-General in Japan, on 27 September 1859, as:

    1 Kocladama (a sort of cabinet) [a kurodana, RCIN 26049]

    1 Dioesu (a sort of cabinet) [a zushidana, RCIN 10451]

    1 Siodama (a bookcase) [a shodana, RCIN 26051]

    Smaller boxes from his gift, sent by Queen Victoria to the South Kensington Museum in 1865, bear an identical scrolling foliage design. A co-ordinating dressing case, dispatch case and pair of round incense boxes remain in the Royal Collection. The silk tassels on the matching case have evidently been stored within the box, for their striking red hue has not faded over time.

    Text adapted from Japan: Courts and Culture (2020)

    Previously published by John Ayers as having been possibly acquired by Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh during his 1869 tour of Japan along with RCIN 70645, RCIN 70646, RCIN 41565 and RCIN 10451, with which it is en suite.

    Recorded at Buckingham Palace in 1911 (BP 1911 III p.207).

  • Medium and techniques

    Black and gold lacquer on wood

    Measurements

    6.5 x 14.6 cm (whole object)

  • Place of Production

    Japan