Description A BAMBOO YATATE (PORTABLE WRITING SET) WITH SNAILS, MEIJIJapan, Meiji period (1868-1912)Carved from a section of bamboo and in the form of a tree branch, depicting in high relief two snails crawling on top, and with a stopper on topLENGTH 22 cmCondition: Good condition with minimal surface wear, natural imperfections of the material, and a loss to the head of one snail.Provenance: The Strong National Museum of Play, accession number 75.54.04 (lacquered to lower back). Margaret Woodbury Strong (1897-1969) grew up in a prosperous family of collectors. Her interests ranged so widely that by 1960 she had amassed more than 27,000 collectible items and works of art. The vast majority of her collections related in some way to play and as her accumulation grew, Margaret planned a museum to house her collection. It eventually opened to the public in 1982, and grew dramatically over the following decades, expanding its collections, facilities, and resources, now spanning over 285,000 square feet. Today, the Strong National Museum of Play (known as just The Strong Museum or simply The Strong) is the only collections-based museum in the world devoted solely to the study of play.