For centuries, lacquer has been integral to the construction and embellishment of samurai arms and armour. From the lacquered iron surfaces of helmets (kabuto) to the individually laced lamellae of cuirasses, lacquer has been employed for its functional properties, as well as a unique surface for artistic expression. Adorned with motifs drawing from the natural world and legend, or emblazoned with heraldic crests (mon), these ornate armours were highly personalised.

Among the samurai aristocracy, martial prowess was inseparable from literary aptitude. Many were accomplished poets, calligraphers and, later, bureaucrats. Lacquer also extended into the realm of the written word. Writing boxes (suzuribako), fitted with inkstones, water droppers and brushes, were essential personal objects. Elegantly ornamented in low and high relief maki-e (sprinkled lacquer), they represent some of the most sophisticated expressions of Japanese decorative art. A suzuribako dating to the 16^th century marries both themes, with the urushi lacquer surface decorated in relief with sword guards (tsuba) of various type and form.

The Saporta Collection unites these parallel traditions. Formed following a coup de cœur at a very young age, the late Jean Saporta developed a rigorous connoisseurship, viewing samurai objects not merely as instruments of war, but as symbols of authority and mediums for personal expression. Many of the works have historical provenance: a lacquered wood suzuribako inlaid in ceramic with various shells realistically rendered, was formerly in the collection of Samuel Siegfried Bing, the influential dealer who introduced Japanese art to Europe at the turn of the twentieth century.

Additional writing boxes formerly in the collection of Charles A. Greenfield include an example depicting a solitary pheasant poised on a rocky promontory. Its interior opens to reveal a golden landscape of a cascade among pine-topped hills and solid gold water dropper in the form of a zither (koto), an allusion to the poem by Ki no Tsurayuki: ‘As the autumn wind / tunes the sound of the pines / to the notes of my koto / does it also pluck gently / the streams of the waterfall?’. A rare bullet-tested helmet (tameshi kabuto) bears two visible trial marks against musket fire; other highlights include impressive war hats (jingasa) with examples in lacquer and repoussé, as well as an armour with a Saotome Ienari helmet.

The sale also includes a finely constructed honkozane do-maru gusoku – a wrapped cuirass in the o-yoroi style – as well as a Myochin school suji-bachi helmet with raised ridges. Another Saotome school work is represented by a sixty-two plate seventeenth century koboshi-bachi by Saotome Iehisa. One helmet in the sale is mounted with large, stylised deer horns (kuwagata) that serve as an ornamental crest (maedate) on a koboshi-bachi with standing rivets. A wakizashi by Dewa no Daijo Fujiwara Kunimichi is encased in Higo-style mounts with a red and black ichibu-kizami lacquer scabbard, while a katana signed Izumi no Kami Kaneshige is fitted in an understated black lacquer saya.

The remarkable properties of the Rhus vernicifera tree made lacquer indispensable in Japan. From the brush to the sword, its use and versatility have been appreciated and refined since as early as 7000 BCE during the Jomon period. In the early eighteenth century text Shodo no shiki [The Pattern of All the Arts], a treatise intended exclusively for the descendants of a lacquer artisans, the master craftsman writes: “You will have to make or illustrate not only saddles and stirrups for the military, but also musical instruments, poems and utensils for the incense ceremony… Do the best you can to learn and correct your knowledge of the rules and principles of all these arts."

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Auction at Dreweatts Newbury: Donnington Priory, Newbury, Berkshire RG14 2JE
Wednesday 11 February 2026, 2pm GMT 

Viewing at Dreweatts London: 16-17 Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5LU

Friday 6 February: 10am-7pm
Saturday 7 February: 10am-4pm
Sunday 8 February: 10am-4pm
Monday 9 February: 10am-4pm
Tuesday 10 February: 10am-4pm

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