An important and rare pair of Japanese export black and gilt lacquer covered jars. Circa 1680-1700. Photo Sotheby's

on later giltwood stands. height of urns 28 1/2 in. 72.4 cm. Estimate 15,000-20,000 USD

Note: A rare survivor of Japanese lacquered wares produced and exported to the European market in the late 17th century, these jars and covers are identical in shape and nearly identical in decoration to a pair of jars and covers now at Kynžvart Castle, Czech Republic and are also similar to a single jar and cover at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford (Impey and Jörg, pp. 164, 166, 168, figs. 378 and 379). Another jar almost identical to the one at the Ashmolean was with Mallett & Son Antiques, London (Synge, p. 125). This group of jars and covers are decorated in the 'pictorial' manner of the late 17th century.
The Kynžvart vases, now displayed in the Oriental Corridor, were probably acquired by Count Philipp Emmerich von Metternich as part of his remodelling of the castle between 1682-1691. Three related octagonal trumpet vases from the collection of Augustus the Strong are at Schloss Pilnitz (Impey, op. cit. p. 380).

See: Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer, 1580-1850, Amsterdam, 2005
Lanto Synge, Mallett Millennium, London, 1999