Fine, brass-mounted 19th century violin case with abalone shell design depicting birds, peonies and pine branches. Green velvet lined interior. Minor losses to shell inlay, some splitting and cracks to base of case exterior, the top and bottom thus fitting unevenly and not fully closing due to damage. Nevertheless the case it otherwise very good and strikingly beautiful!  85 x 24 x 16 cm. 

Nagasaki, the technique of colorful shell inlay on a black lacquer ground, was produced under Dutch instruction in Nagasaki from the late 18th century. The colorful decoration of floral and bird motifs follow the conventional Nagasaki designs of the period.

This violin case was probably produced for the North European market and may have been made on the island of Deshima in the Bay of Nagasaki. Deshima, also known as Dejima, was a man-made island constructed in Nagasaki harbour by the Tokugawa shogunate (1603-1867) in the mid-1630s. It was the only place in Japan where Westerners, first the Portuguese and then the Dutch, were allowed to reside from the 1630s to 1856 under the country’s policy of national seclusion.