A JAPANESE GILT-BRONZE-MOUNTED NAMBAN LACQUER CABINET

The present cabinet with its distinctive black, silvered and gilt lacquered decoration off-set with inlays of mother-of-pearl was among the first Japanese export lacquer goods to arrive in the West. Although the Portuguese prised Japanese lacquered goods, they did not trade it in the West, but almost exclusively in the inter-Asian trade and as diplomatic gifts. When the Dutch gained a foothold in Japan in the early 17th century, they quickly saw the trade potential of lacquered goods, the first shipment of Namban lacquer arrived in Holland in 1610.
A cabinet with fall front similarly decorated with an overall scheme is in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Cf. O. Impe & C. Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, Amsterdam, 2005, pp. 122-123, no 228.