

Japan, Edo Period, late 18th century

An exceptional Japanese carved red chõshitsu lacquer telescope. In Japan, unlike in China, carved lacquer ware was rare. It involves carving patterns through layers of lacquer. This small telescope, with a chrysanthemum design, extending parts black lacquered paper-maché with wooden eye-piece, is reminiscent of the Chinese carved lacquer technique much admired, but only occasionally imitated in Japan. Spectacles arrived in Japan in the mid-16th century mainly through Jesuits from China.

_Edo-period, Japan, 1650-1700_ _L. 19 x W. 6 x H. 8.5 cm_ Provenance: - Auctioned at Christie’s in 1996 - Similar box illustrated in Oliver Impey & Christiaan Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, Hotei Publishing, Leiden, 2005, p. 115