nd. The present Government of Japan, anxious to recover many of
the masterpieces which were produced in the best time, under the
patronage of the native princes of the old _regime_, have established a
museum at Tokio, where many examples of fine lacquer work, which had been
sent to Europe for sale, have been placed after repurchase, to serve as
examples for native artists to copy, and to assist in the restoration of
the ancient reputation of Japan.

There is in the South Kensington Museum a very beautiful Japanese chest of
lacquer work made about the beginning of the seventeenth century, the best
time for Japanese art; it formerly belonged to Napoleon I. and was
purchased at the Hamilton Palace Sale for L722: it is some 3 ft. 3 in.
long and 2 ft. 1 in. high, and was intended originally as a receptacle for
sacred Buddhist books. There are, most delicately worked on to its
surface, views of the interior of one of the Imperial Palaces of Japan,
and a hunting scene. Mother-of-pearl, gold, silver, and aventurine, are
all used in the enrichment of this beautiful specimen of inlaid work, and
the lock plate is a representative example of the best kind of metal work
as applied to this purpose.

H.R.H. the Duke of Edinburgh has several fine specimens of Chinese and
Japanese lacquer work in his collection, about the arrangement of which
the writer had the honour of advising his Royal Highness, when it arrived
some years ago at Clarence House. The earliest specimen is a reading desk,
presented by the Mikado, with a slope for a book much resembling an
ordinary bookrest, but charmingly decorated with lacquer in landscape
subjects on the flat surfaces, while the smaller parts are diapered with
flowers and quatrefoils in relief of lac and gold. This is of the
sixteenth century. The collections of the Earl of Elgin and Kincardine,
Sir Rutherford Alcock, K.C.B., Mr. Salting, Viscount Gough, and other
well-known amateurs, contain some excellent examples of the best periods
of Japanese Art work of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The grotesque carving of the wonderful dragons and marvellous monsters
introduced into furniture made by the Chinese and Japanese, and especially
in the ornamental woodwork of the Old Temples, is thoroughly peculiar to
these masters of elaborate design and skilful manipulation: and the low
rate of remuneration, compared with our European notions of wages, enables
work to be produced that would be imprac