19th Century Japanese Shibayama Cabinet

Rare Japanese Shibayama cabinet. The cabinet is elaborate and subtly detailed carved wood, gold lacquer. The decor of the cabinet is composed of flowers, birds, vases butterfly and Japanese patterns with gold lacquer, and painted or inlay design on the cabinet doors. Every part of this cabinet is either carved or decorated. The sides of the cabinet are decorated with Japanese flowers.

This cabinet, which takes the form of a dresser, corresponds to a very specific form of 19th century Japanese art called "Shibayama": this term refers to a typology of objects that use the inlay of ivory, wood or lacquered support using a variety of natural materials sculpted in various textures and colours, and most often including many shells, horns, ivory and dyed wood. Although shell inlays were made in Japan for hundreds of years, it was during the 19th century that the Shibayama family (from which the name of this specific production derives) developed this technique with such a degree of precision that it became very popular in the Meiji era.