c. 1850-1900
Cover and sliding compartment with rounded ends. The top is decorated in horizontal format. The top and sides are decorated with a continuous frieze of flowering plants with birds and flying insects on a gold background. On the base, a gold arabesque is loosely painted on a red background.
3.8 × 3.9 × 22.4 cm (1 1/2 × 1 9/16 × 8 13/16 in.)
Ezzat-Malek Soudavar, Geneva, Switzerland (by 2014), by descent; to her son Abolala Soudavar, Houston, Texas (2014), gift; to Harvard Art Museums, 2014. Note: Ezzat-Malek Soudavar (1913-2014) formed this collection over a period of sixty years. She purchased the works of art on the international art market.
One of a pair of koban (small-sized) sheets of minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "kiribori" (drill-carving) and "dōgubori" (punch-carving) techniques
19th-20th centuryJapaneseInk on carved wood
19th centuryChineseInk on carved wood
19th centuryChineseStone
19th centuryAmericanChūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "ichimaizukibori" (chisel-carving) technique, with "ito-ire" (silk-web) reinforcement
19th-20th centuryJapaneseChūban (medium-sized) minogami (mulberry bark paper) treated with persimmon juice and cut using the "dōgubori" (punch-carving) and "tsukibori" (thrust-carving) techniques
19th-20th centuryJapaneseOpaque watercolor, gold-colored pigments, and lacquer on pasteboard
19th centuryPale greenish white nephrite
18th-19th centuryChineseCarved and engraved wood; ten bordered columns of text per recto and per verso; twenty two characters per column. Text in Chinese characters.
18th-19th centuryKoreanEtched zinc printing plate
19th centuryFrenchInk on carved wood
19th centuryChineseDouble-sided carved wooden printing block
19th centuryJapanese