Three Lacquer Portrait Medallions. Japan, Sasaya or Kyoto, EDO period (1600-1868). Late 18th. century. Manufactured to be exported to the European market. 14 x 9,2 cm. each.   Oval copper medallion with gold maki-e decoration (takamakie) on a black lacquered background (roironuri). With effigies of René of Anjou (also known as King René I of Naples (1409-1480), the English poet and essayist John Milton (London, 1608 - 1674) and King Louis XI of France, nicknamed the Prudent (Bourges, 1423 - Plessis-les-Tours, 1483). 14 x 9.2 cm. each.    The fashion in Europe for this type of oval medallions emerged around 1780. Each consists of a copper panel covered with black lacquer and decorated with gilt hiramakie with portraits in bas-relief, and constitute the first evidence of European decoration in Japanese lacquer. It is believed that their creator may have been Johan Fredrik Baron van Reede tot de Parkeler, head of the Dutch trade mission to Deshima in 1786 and between 1788 and 1789. Several series were produced, made for export, including one depicting famous European kings and queens, generals, scholars and artists. The subjects were copied from l'Europe illustré, a six-volume work published in Paris between 1755 and 1756 and compiled by Dreux du Radier that contained 593 depictions of famous people from the Middle Ages to the mid-18th century. Some examples of such medallions are kept in museums: the Herbig-Haarhaus Lackmuseum in Cologne has three emperors, the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam keeps a collection of nineteen medallions, acquired before 1829 as part of the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities of King William I of The Hague.   Reference Bibliography: O. Impey, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, Ámsterdam, 2005, pp. 48-52 y 216-217.