A fine pair of Japanese export lacquer secretaires owned by Sir Stamford Raffles

A pair of Japanese Kyoto-Nagasaki style export lacquer secretaires by ‘Lakwerker Sasaya’ each with the name ‘Olivia’

Kyoto, Edo period, circa 1800-1813

Both secretaires are made according to the French taste of the late 18th/early 19th century. However, they are fully executed in black lacquer over sugi wood (cedar, Cryptomeria japonica), decorated with gold powder, silver powder, mother-of-pearl and gilt metal mounts. They are a superb example of the Kyoto- Nagasaki style of export lacquer, featuring Chinese- inspired landscapes based upon model drawings from the Sasaya Workshop. These drawings can currently be found in the collection of the Rijksmuseum (inv. no. AK-MAK-1734-4).

The upper section of each secretaire has two doors flanked by twisted maki-e decorated columns with gilt metal bases and capitals. The capitals are perfect miniature copies after lifelike examples of the To-Kyou, the upper bracket complex, of columns in traditional earthquake-resistant temple-building, with each tiny element separately stacked. The finely drawn columns are from the early Edo period and have been reused for their fineness. Underneath a retractable board, possibly for candles, a large fall-front writing slope reveals several partitions and drawers decorated with scattered flower sprays. The inside of each fall front boldly displays the signature ‘LAKWERKER SASAYA’, written in gold within an oval border. The lower sections have two large drawers decorated with Chinese-style landscapes within an oval cartouche.

H. 176.5 x W. 101,5 x D. 48 cm (each)

Provenance:
– Probably Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles the founder of Singapore, and Lady Olivia Marianme Stamford Raffles (née Devenish); thence by descent
– Probably Olivia Stamford Raffles Villeneuve, thence by descent to the Hinson Beaver Van der Haas family
Hauteville Antiquaires, Brussels
Private collection, Paris (purchased in the 1980s/early 1990s)
Thence by descent in 2019 and sold at auction in Paris right after

Remarkably, both secretaires, and an included pair of jewellery boxes, bear the name ‘Olivia’, written in elegant hira-maki-e penmanship on the outside, just above the fall front.1 There can’t be any doubt that the present pair of secretaires were presented to Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, as a gift for his wife Lady Olivia Mariamna Stamford Raffles née Devenish (1771-1814). However, some other options must first be explored to come to a solid provenance. To start, Olivia was a completely unknown name in the Netherlands or the former Dutch East Indies. The first Olivia, or at least the only Olivia from 1750 till 1850, registered in the Dutch East Indies, was the wife of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Java from 1811 to 1816.

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