Sawasa book-shaped export box

This small, book-shaped box is a container designed to hold tobacco or other aromatic substances. The front and back are adorned with a raised design featuring golden trees, pavilions and birds against a black background. The interior of the box is gilded. Its refined design mimics the edge of an antique book, with gilding and stylized motifs that accentuate the bound effect. The box features a hinged lid with a wide inner rim and is constructed from a metal alloy composed of copper, gold, silver and arsenic, coated with a black patina and embellished with raised gilding. Since the artisan was unfamiliar with European conventions, the book opens in the opposite direction.

The Sawasa is a type of traditional Japanese object used as a storage box for tobacco or other precious substances. It is characterized by meticulous decorations that attest to Japanese craftsmanship and lend the object significant aesthetic and cultural value. These luxurious tobacco boxes were adapted to European tastes : they adopt Western forms such as that of a book, while being decorated in an Eastern style.

Reference : Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, “Sawasa: Japanese export art in black and gold, 1650–1800”, pp. 77–78.