Japan, 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Of rectangular form, the roiro ground superbly decorated in gold and silver togidashi-e with a recumbent stag with a sprig of reishi in its mouth below two bats in flight, all within a circular reserve encircled by dense gold sprinkles, appearing like a solar eclipse. The interior with gold fundame edges and finely decorated in gold takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, and kirigane on a red lacquer ground, depicting to the interior of the cover two men walking up a steep mountain path in a vast landscape with further mountains, clouds, pine trees, houses, and a temple, all under the full moon, and to the interior tray two pine trees below misty mountains, the tray fitted with an inkstone (suzuri) and a gilt silver water-dropper (suiteki) in the form of two overlapping circles.SIZE 21.6 x 16.6 x 3 cmCondition: Excellent condition with minor wear.Provenance: Charles Goddard Weld. Museum of Fine Arts Boston, donated from the above. Christie’s, Japanese Art and Design, 8 November 2006, London, lot 88. With Sydney L. Moss Ltd., acquired from the above. The interior of the cover with accession number ‘IL5818a’, the underside with three old labels, ‘M.F.A. L. 1361 Ni.6v3’, ‘[M. F. A.] C. G. Weld 623’, and ‘L 735’. Charles Goddard Weld (1857-1911) was a Boston-area physician, sailor, and philanthropist. Weld, a resident of Brookline, Massachusetts and a scion of the famous Weld family of that area, practiced surgery for many years, but ultimately gave it up to manage his family's fortune. In 1886, Weld attempted to sail around the world in his personal yacht. However, while moored in Yokohama, the yacht caught fire and was destroyed. As a result, Weld spent an extended amount of time with his Bostonian friends William Sturgis Bigelow and Ernest Fenollosa. The pair had already been in Japan for some time themselves, exploring the country and collecting art. Ernest Fenollosa eventually sold his art collection to Weld on the condition that it go to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. In 1911, the collections of Ernest Fenollosa and Charles G. Weld, much of it already physically in the Museum of Fine Arts, on loan indefinitely, became the property of the Museum, as the Fenollosa-Weld Collection, which contains many of the most famous pieces in the Museum’s collection.The stag, reishi, and bats are auspicious symbols coming from China, where the word for bat is homophonous to the word for happiness (fu), the deer or stag is associated with the god of longevity Shoulao, and the lingzhi (reishi) is considered a divine fungus that grants immortality.