AN UNUSUAL INLAID GOLD LACQUER AND TSUISHU FOUR-CASE INRO WITH MONKEYSUnsignedJapan, 19th century, Edo period (1615-1868)Each side with a foliate-lobed panel bearing a hirame ground finely decorated in predominantly gold takamaki-e, hiramaki-e, and kirikane as well as mixed-metal and lacquered-pottery inlays, depicting to one side a monkey with gold eyes seated on a rock beneath a flowering peach tree beside a waterfall, and to the other two further monkeys under a towering peach tree. The sides, top, and bottom of tsuishu (carved red lacquer) with diapered asanoha. The interior of rich nashiji with gold fundame edges. HEIGHT 9.5 cmCondition: Very good condition with minor surface wear and losses to gold flakes, the interiors with few expected age cracks and small nibbles to edges. The cases are rigid, particularly the top case.Provenance: Hotel Drouot, Paris, 26 April 1967, lot 19. French private collection, assembled in Paris during the 1950s and 1960s, acquired from the above. The interior with a cut-out of the original Drouot catalog description for the present lot, inscribed with the sale date.The combination of lacquer techniques on the present inro is most unusual.