A sudden fashion for this type of Japanese lacquered-copper medallion emerged towards the end of the 18th century. Johan Fredrik Baron van Reede tot de Parkeler (head merchant on Deshima in 1786 and 1788-89) mentions in a letter to his father in 1793 “two oval portraits or busts of Frederick the Great, one of which is lacquered with colours and the other inlaid with pearlshell or nacre”¹, an example of which is included in this lot. Other examples of these medallions a in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the National Museum of Japanese History, Chiba, Japan, and various private collections. It seems that there were several series of portraits depicting famous historical personalities, of which only a relatively small proportion are known to survive. Academic research based on these has divided them into three main groups, with further examples that do not fit into these groups which therefore form a group of their own.²

The first group depicts European kings, queens, statesmen, philosophers, poets, artists and other famous figures. These portraits are known to have been copied directly from a French book entitled L’Europe illustré, a six-volume publication published in Paris between 1755 and 1765. It contained 593 illustrations of famous figures from the early middle ages up to around the date of publication. The Japanese lacquerer faithfully copied these, placing the name of the person above their head, and the explanatory text on the reverse, rather than beneath the bust portrait as they were in L’Europe illustré. Eight of the present lot are from this group.

The second group depicts Roman emperors with text in Latin and is believed to have been copied from a book illustrating Roman coins and medals, however the book has not yet been found.³ Three of the present lot are from this group.

The third group is a series of Chinese rulers and notables, this time copied from a book entitled Memoires sur les Chinois, published 1778. A medallion with a portrait of the Chinese emperor Qin Shihuang (r. BC246-210) is known to exist from this group, along with one of the philosopher Confucius, an example of which is included in this lot.

Finally there are examples which do not fit into the above groups, such as the rectangular example depicting Joseph II of Austria and the coloured lacquer example with Frederick the Great (both included in this lot).

1. Oliver Impey and Christiaan Jorg, Japanese Export Lacquer 1580-1850, (Amsterdam, 2005), p. 48
2. Ibid, p. 48-51
3. Ibid, p. 51.