A Very Fine Makie lacquer-work plaque of St. Petersburg view, in the foreground the Neva river, on the left the Winter Palace and on the right the Academy of Science; in the back side on center of the plaque there is an inscription in gold relief written in French that reads "Vue Perspective des Bords de la Neva en descendant la Rivière entre la Palais d'hyver de sa Majesté Impériale et les batimens de l'Académie des Sciences à St Petersburg”,surrounded by mother-of-pearl branches inlaid. Late XVIII Century. Height: 9in. (23cm) Width: 15,3 in. (39 cm) The Lacquer plaques in maki-e and lacquer plaquettes in maki-e are typical examples of exported lacquer in the latter part of the Edo period. It is usual for rectangular plaques to depict landscapes and war scenes and for round plaques to depict portraits. For a relatively short period from the 1780s through to around 1800 orders for both types were received from Europe, and once they were produced they were exported from Dejima. Decorations using elaborate maki-e lacquer-work techniques were that made using prints of copper plate engravings brought from Europe as the original and by carefully copying the original patterns. A smooth black lacquer surface is achieved by baking lacquer onto a copper plate, and patterns are then applied using gold or silver-gold hira-makie (low-relief lacquer), kanagai (thin gold foil), and tsukegaki (fine-lined lacquer painting followed by a sprinkling of gold powder) techniques. It was an extremely refined style where hatching (technique using fine lines) peculiar to copper plate prints could be substituted by the tsukegaki technique. Even letters in captions on the prints were faithfully copied, showing the astonishing accuracy of the artisans' skills. It would appear that in the beginning, plaques and plaquettes were custom-made in response to individual requests. However, in light of the considerable number of extant items it is believed that makie lacquer-work plaquette portraits were produced in considerable quantities and then exported in batches. It is recognized that printed editions containing portraits of ancient and modern statesmen and scholars, such as the “L'Europe Illustrée” by Dreux du Radier and published in Paris from 1755 to 1765, who were used as originals. In the same years, Isaac Titsingh, the first important European Japanologist, longtimes he left the Deshima Island (just in front Nagasaki), committed for same lacca after European designs as European emperors and notable men after “ l’Europe Illustre” publication. This plaque is a very closer example of one dedicated to Catherine II (held in the collection of the Kunstkammer, Russian) offered by the Swede Johan Arnold Stutzer a physician who lived in Dejima in 1787-1788, and seems to have been ordered and produced in this years.

A Megane-e (perspective optique picture for peep show) picture from a copper plate engraving of a view of St. Petersburg (Chido Museum, Tsuruoka). This landscape by Mihail Ivanovich Mahaev (1717-1770) was printed and distributed. This is actually back to front compared to the original landscape because as printed comes to the reverse side. It is clear that the plaque was copied from this print and not from the original picture.

Megane-e picture of a View of St Petersburg. Chido Museum Literature: ● Published in O.Impey, Ch. Jorg, Japanese export lacquer 1580-1850, ed. Jorge Welsh, 2005, p.52.

● Another lacquered copper panel example depicting the scene of St. Petersburg is in the collection of the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura, Chiba, Japan, it is recorded in their periodical magazine Rekihaku No. 120, ‘A Witness to History’.