Crane and Turtle Box
maker
Unknown
Date1894
Place MadeJapan, East Asia
MediumSilver with gold and lacquer
Dimensions10.5 cm (4 1/8 in.) high
ClassificationsBoxes
Credit LineIsabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston
Accession numberM18e44.a-b
eMuseum ID728389
Previous Number505
Previous NumberM18e44
EmbARK ObjectID14218
TMS Source ID3033
Last Updated11/23/24
Status
Not on viewWeb Commentary
This crane and turtle box was designed and produced to be given to guests at the imperial banquet for the twenty-fifth wedding anniversary of the Meiji Emperor and Empress in 1894. Often referred to by the French term “bonbonnière,” the box is decorated with a crane and two turtles (minogame), historic motifs that convey messages of auspiciousness and longevity across East Asia. Aside from two others in private collections, all examples of this bonbonnière are in the collection of the Japanese Imperial Household.
Kojiro Tomita (1890-1976), Isabella’s friend and a curator at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, gave this box to Isabella sometime around the year 1909. Isabella displayed it in the Little Salon along with other objects commemorating her friendships.
BibliographyNotesGilbert Wendel Longstreet and Morris Carter. General Catalogue (Boston, 1935), p. 145. (as Japanese, dated 9 March 1894)
Chelsea Foxwell and Bradley M. Bailey. Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan (New York: Asia Society; Chicago: The Smart Museum of Art; Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 2023-2024), p. 220, cat. 5-3.
Bradley Bailey, "Commemorating a Marriage: An Imperial Crane and Turtle Box," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 29 October 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/commemorating-marriage-imperial-crane-and-turtle-box
Chelsea Foxwell and Bradley M. Bailey. Meiji Modern: Fifty Years of New Japan (New York: Asia Society; Chicago: The Smart Museum of Art; Houston: The Museum of Fine Arts, 2023-2024), p. 220, cat. 5-3.
Bradley Bailey, "Commemorating a Marriage: An Imperial Crane and Turtle Box," Inside the Collection (blog), Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, 29 October 2024, https://www.gardnermuseum.org/blog/commemorating-marriage-imperial-crane-and-turtle-box
MarksNotesInscribed: 明治二十七年三月九日 [Meiji, 27th year (1894), third month, ninth day]
ProvenanceNotesMade to be presented to guests at the imperial banquet for the 25th wedding annniversary of the Meiji Emperor and Empress in 1894.
Gift from the Japanese art historian Tomita Kojiro (1890-1976) to Isabella Stewart Gardner, probably about 1909.
Gift from the Japanese art historian Tomita Kojiro (1890-1976) to Isabella Stewart Gardner, probably about 1909.
