8 - JOKASAI: A RARE THREE-CASE INLAID LACQUER ‘SARUBOBO’ INRO

JOKASAI: A RARE THREE-CASE INLAID LACQUER ‘SARUBOBO’ INRO By Yamada Jokasai, signed Jokasai 常嘉斎 with kakihan Japan, 18th century, Edo period (1615-1868) Of broad rectangular form and lenticular section, bearing a lustrous roiro ground richly mottled with irregular clouds of mura-nashiji, dense gold dust, and scattered gold flakes, creating a remarkably deep and variegated surface. Finely decorated in gold, silver, aged pewter, and iridescent mother-of-pearl with a scattered group of sarubobo, their simple rounded and folded forms boldly abstracted and rendered in contrasting materials. The subdued silver and pewter tones and luminous shell stand out dramatically against the richly textured, smoky ground, lending the deceptively simple design exceptional refinement. The interior cases are finished in fine nashiji with gold fundame rims. Signed to the underside in gold lacquer JOKASAI with a red kakihan. HEIGHT 6.8 cm, LENGTH 8.4 cm Provenance: Collection of Henry Charles Clifford, London, thence by descent. Glendining & Co. London, 15 December 1947, lot 120. The Dorothy Ann Stevens Collection of Fine Netsuke & Inro, formed between the 1940s and 1960s, acquired from the above. A copy of the corresponding entry in the collector’s register, recording the present lot as no. 279, accompanies the lot. With two old handwritten collector’s labels contained within the top case, one inscribed ‘Signed Jokasai, c. 1700. Toy Monkeys on a mura-nashiji ground’, and the other bearing an old collector’s number and indicating the Glending & Co sale date. Henry Charles Clifford (1861-1947) was a British painter and collector active in London with particular interests in Japanese art and numismatics. A member of the Royal Society of British Artists and of the British Numismatic Society from its early years, Clifford had formed a significant collection of Japanese works of art by at least 1915, when a number of objects from his collection were included in the Japanese Art and Handicraft Loan Exhibition, held in aid of the British Red Cross. His holdings encompassed inro, netsuke, kiseruzutsu, sword fittings, and other works representing some of the principal fields of Japanese decorative art collected in Britain at the time. Following his death in 1947, his collections were dispersed at auction, with works formerly belonging to Clifford subsequently entering distinguished British private and museum collections. Dorothy Ann Stevens was a collector of Japanese art active during the mid-twentieth century. The wife of the chemist, artist, and collector Henry Potter Stevens (1875–1965), she formed an extensive collection of netsuke, inro, and smoking accessories. Each acquisition was carefully documented, assigned an individual inventory number, and subjected to scholarly study. Many objects in the collection were acquired on the London art market during the 1940s and 1950s, including works with distinguished earlier provenances. Dorothy and Henry maintained closely related but distinct collections and occasionally exchanged objects between them, Henry's interests being particularly associated with inro and hers with netsuke. Preserved within the Stevens family for more than half a century, her collection constitutes a significant and well-documented record of the collecting and study of Japanese miniature arts during this period. Condition: Excellent condition with only very minor wear. Yamada Jokasai occupies a distinguished position among the major lacquer lineages of Edo. The first Jokasai worked in Edo in the late 17th century, initially within the Kajikawa tradition and in the service of the Tokugawa shogunate, before establishing the Yamada school. The lineage continued through successive generations until the end of the Edo period, with most members signing simply Jokasai, making attribution to an individual generation difficult. The early character of the present inro, its exceptional mixed-media workmanship, and the old Clifford/Stevens attribution of circa 1700 suggest the hand of an early member of the lineage. Sarubobo, literally “monkey baby,” are traditional stuffed cloth dolls which served both as children’s toys and as protective charms. The name is today particularly associated with the Hida region, where bobo is the local word for a baby, but the underlying type belongs to the much broader Japanese tradition of soft protective dolls descended from hōko and related forms. Historical accounts of the Hida tradition record that sarubobo were made domestically from cloth, stuffed with cotton, and used as toys and protective substitutes for children; smaller examples could even be tied together and worn at the waist.