An export gilt-lacquer games box and set of mother-of-pearl counters

Meiji Period

Meiji Period
The rectangular box finely painted in gilt with a central shield crest reserved on a leafy grapevine meander and zig-zag border, the interior with five similarly decorated compartments containing a quantity of circular, oblong and wider oblong mother-of-pearl counters, each engraved with the matching crest.
The box: 30cm (11 3/4in) wide (qty).

Although it is similar in form to the familiar Chinese examples made in the Canton area in the late 18th and early 19th century, both the style and the techniques of the decoration suggest that this set of boxes was manufactured in Japan, possibly in Nagasaki, as part of a private trade in export lacquer ware which flourished during the later Edo period.