Stationery box with sea shell design in maki-e

Before everything else, please have a closer look at the date when this thing was created. 1663 - 1747! Such a precision and beauty. The stationery box has exteriors of black lacquer and interiors of dense, ground pear-skin (nashi). The lid has bands of shells and seaweed and the direction in which the seaweed is flowing and changing in each band gives a very leisurely sense of the currents in the ocean. This box has shells and seaweed on two of the corners on the body. Over-glaze enameled porcelain and mother-of-pearl were used in the marquetry forming the many varieties of shellfish, while the seaweed is in gold and silver maki-e. The upper surface of the lid carries the signature “Ritsuo” in maki-e and the seal “Kan” in marquetry, evidence that this box was made by Ogawa Haritsu (1663-1747). Haritsu, a native of Ise, studied haiku poetry in Edo and produced Tosa-style paintings and lacquerware. His use of marquetry, imbedding ceramics, lead, tin, carved cinnabar lacquer, ivory, and other materials into hiramaki-e was quite innovative; such work is thus known as Haritsu marquetry.