Property from a private collection SEKIGAWA KATSUNOBUA Black Lacquer Three-Case Inrō Edo period (1615-1868), 19th century Of lenticular profile with integral cord runners, decorated in gold, silver, and colored togidashi maki-e against a roiro polished black lacquer ground with gold hirame accents, depicting a cat playing with a habōki (feather duster used in chanoyu ), the reverse with a tall basket containing an ikebana arrangement, the interior rich gold nashiji , signed in gold hiramaki-e Katsunobu saku (Made by Katsunobu) with a red pot-seal Taira ; ojime silver-lacquered, in the form of a seated cat; netsuke kurogaki (black persimmon) carved as a recumbent cat, unsigned 2 3/4in (7cm) high Provenance Louis Gonse Collection Demaree and Dorothy Bess Collection Charles A. Greenfield Collection Harriet Szechenyi Collection , London, November 8, 2011, lot 271 Published Hotel Drouot, Paris, Collection Louis Gonse: Oeuvres d'art du Japon , Paris, 1924, no.463, pl.XXIII Harold P. Stern, The Magnificent Three, Lacquer, Netsuke, and Tsuba , New York, Japan Society, 1972, p.80, no.145 Harold P. Stern, Birds, Beasts, Blossoms, and Bugs , New York, Harry N. Abrams, 1976, p. 173, no.102 Andrew J. Pekarik, Japanese Lacquer, 1600-1900 , New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1980, no.41, fig.52 Eskenazi Ltd., The Charles A. Greenfield Collection of Japanese Lacquer , London, 1990, no.41 Signature Published E.A. Wrangham, The Index of Inrō Artists , Harehope, Northumberland, Harehope Publications, 1995, p.118, Katsunobu (left) Exhibited Japan House Gallery, New York, 1972 Frederick S. Wright Gallery, University of California, Los Angeles, 1976 Asia House Gallery, New York, 1977 Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1980