SHIBATA ZESHIN 柴田是真 (1807–1891) SMALL BOX WITH DESIGN OF AUTUMN GRASSES 秋草図素彫小箱Meiji era (1868–1912), circa 1870–1890A small box with kabusebuta (overhanging lid), the body, with rounded edges, likely constructed using a combination of the magemono (bentwood) and harinuki (layered-paper) techniques, the reddish-brown lacquer ground cut and engraved in subori with a design of susuki (plume grass) and fujibakama ('purple trousers' or thoroughwort); signed with incised characters inside the lid at lower left Zeshin 是真3.9cm × 8.5cm × 7.4cm (1½in × 3⅜in × 2⅞in) With fitted clear-lacquered wood tomobako inscribed Zeshin saku akikusa-bako 是真作　秋草箱 (Box with autumn plants by Zeshin) and paper label from the Zeshin Hyakunijūnen Tsuizen Tenran 是真百廿年追善記念展覧 (Zeshin 120th Anniversary Display), held in Tokyo in 2011 (4)Provenance:Sold in these Rooms, 10 November 2015, lot 1Exhibited:Zeshin Hyakunijūnen Tsuizen Tenran, Tokyo, 2011Exhibited and Published:Nezu Bijutsukan (Nezu Museum) 2012, cat. no. 56注脚In his catalogue note for the 2012 Zeshin exhibition at the Nezu Museum, Takao Yō comments that Zeshin used a single marukebori (curved line-engraving) knife to execute this delicate composition. For a somewhat larger box by Zeshin with a related autumnal design in different techniques, see Earle and Gōke 1996, cat. no. 21.