THE SHIBATA ZESHIN ‘DRUNKEN FISHERMAN’ SUZURIBAKO Japan, late 19th century. By Shibata Zeshin (1807-1891). Signed and sealed ‘Zeshin’. Superbly detailed late-night scene with a boy (karako) in his reed-thatched Yakatabune boat, who fell asleep whilst fishing. The reason for his passing-out is quickly identified: A golden double-gourd sake bottle suspended above him, now empty! DIMENSIONS 27 x 22 x 5 cm WEIGHT 796.6 grams Provenance: Bluett & Sons, original paper label to base. Collection of the late Soame Jenyns (1904-1976), then by descent within the family. Condition: Very good, and most important, 100% original condition with no restoration, touch-ups, inpainting or other sorts of repair whatsoever. The image in superb condition. Minor crackling and losses mostly to the edges. No inkstone. Shibata Zeshin (March 15, 1807 – July 13, 1891) was a Japanese lacquer artist and painter of the late Edo period and early Meiji era. He has been called “Japan’s greatest lacquerer”. The present lot is one of the few Suzuribako writing sets by Zeshin to feature a human figure as central motif. Its explicit narrative theme is in strong con-trast to traditional Japanese story-telling lacquers, which often make only understated, hard-to-catch references to the texts on which they are based. Here Zeshin, influenced by traditional Chinese painting, adopts an explicit approach and includes all essential Japanese lacquer techniques existing at the time, many pioneered and arguably perfected by him, clearly with the intent of this masterpiece to serve as a spearhead in the countermovement he created against the scale and impact of framed Western oils in Japan of the period and establish lacquering as an independent painting medium. The humoristic scene of the drunken fisherman is at the center of a magnificent river shore landscape with a willow and a pine tree below a silver moon hidden behind golden clouds. Curling waves, draught-bent bamboo and craggy rocks add further to the peaceful atmosphere. This motif originates in the tradition of Chinese painters of the Ming Dynasty, most notably Tang Yin (1470–1524), one of the “Four Masters of the Ming dynasty”, who painted “Drunken Fisherman by a Reed Bank” around 1510, now residing in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (Accession Number 1989.363.55). Zeshin made full use of lacquer’s power to both emulate and outdo oil painting, applying especially thick takamaki-e to convey the gnarly trunks of the trees, starkly contrasted by the smoothly polished silver togidashi-e moon, the rough-textured leaves of the willow tree and the intricate takamaki-e and mother of pearl inlays used for the bamboo. The rectangular lacquer writing box and its overhanging cover are furthermore decorated in gold, silver, green and black takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, togidashi, nashiji and mother-of-pearl inlays on a dark-brown, almost black ground. The interior cover is decorated in gold, brown and red takamaki-e with a flute and a biwa lute. Both instruments show stunning detail work, partly in high relief, such as a dragon painted in togidashi-e on the string bed of the instrument. The interior base shows sparrows (suzume) birds flying towards a wooden fence surrounded by bamboo in black and silver takamaki-e. Neatly incised and original silver peach water-dropper embossed with two peaches amid their vines and leaves. Roger Soame Jenyns (1904–1976) was a British art historian. He was educated at Eton and at Magdalene College of Cambridge University. In 1926 he joined the Hong Kong Civil Service. In Hong Kong, he became one of the valuable contributors to the newly established journal, The Hong Kong Naturalist. His articles would often touch on the cultural role of South China’s animals and plants. In 1931, Jenyns left Hong Kong for England, to take up a job at the British Museum, where he served as the Assistant Keeper of Oriental Antiquities until 1967. In 1935 he published a well-received book on Chinese painting. Later-on, he authored several books on Chinese ceramics and jades in which he described many items from the museum’s collection. In 1936, Roger Soame Jenyns inherited the Bottisham Hall estate, which two centuries earlier had been owned by his remote relative, the writer and politician Soame Jenyns. For the style and execution of the waves, compare with an Inro in The Misumi Collection of Important Works of Lacquer Art and Paintings, Part III, Bonham’s London, lot 11, November 8th, 2017. For another golden sake bottle in double gourd shape, compare with a lacquer kogo (incense box) by Shibata Zeshin in Fine Japanese Art, Bonham’s London, lot 238, May 17th, 2012. For a related scene with human figures, compare with a lacquer panel showing a farmhouse in the snow by Shibata Zeshin in the Misumi Collection of Important Works of Lacquer Art and Paintings, Part I, Bonham’s London, lot 14, November 5th, 2014. For the lacquer painting of a fan closely related to the biwa lute on the present lot, see a Suzuribako by Shibata Zeshin in the Khalili collection (BL39), also recently exhibited in Musee Guimet, Paris, Meiji – Splendours du Japon Imperial, cat.65.