A LACQUERED SHIELD FOR THE DUTCH MARKET EDO PERIOD, MID-LATE 17TH CENTURY |

the almost circular leather shield decorated in gold, black, silver, hiramaki-e and takamaki-e with a coat of arms surrouded by birds flying among flower sprays including wisteria, plum blossom and fuyo on a black ground with a gold hiramaki-e border to the rim, the shield constructed of buffalo leather

Leather shields, made from buffalo hide were exported from Bengal for lacquering. One of the earlierst records for shields is 1647 "sent to Japan a crate of 35 shields received from Bengal to be lacqured black with all kinds of foliage."¹ In 1657, Batavia ordered 51 shields lacquered black and gold but twelve were lost off the coast of Hakata in a great storm, when lacquer workers were returning from Nagasaki to Kyoto. The earliest known dated shield, is that made for Frederik Coyett, Opperhoodf in Deshima in 1648, and this has a very similar design to the above of a central coat of arms surrounded by sprays and flying birds. Other known examples are in the Östasiatiska Museet, Stockholm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam: inventory no. NG1978-92 and NG-NM-541 and the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, inv. no. 1992.1.<sup>2

(1)</sup> The Dagregisters Deshima 1657-58.

⁽²⁾ Oliver Impey, Christian Jörg, Japanese Export Lacquer, 1580-1850, (Amsterdam, 2005) pl. 461-464, p.193