...and Desiring Rayskin

This box came with another box. Fine boxes such as this would not have been preserved for so long without an elegant case. This box was likely protected by another one made of rayskin, as hinted by the reference to this material by the staff of the MET. Other small boxes from this period - currently part of the V&A collection- were stored in black or green rayskin cases, as you can see in these pictures (figs. 17, 18).

Similar to mother-of-pearl, rayskin, or shagreen in Europe, was a ‘global’ raw material. This material was considered very valuable and a marker of luxury. It became desirable in Europe precisely because it was used in Japanese lacquerware, when it was first imported to Europe by the Portuguese in the 16th century (fig.19). Unfortunately, it is still unclear how rayskin as raw material reached Europe. It was possibly imported by the British East India Company from India or China and then resold in France, the Netherlands and then other Western marketsSee Guth, Christine. (2016). “Towards a global history of shagreen.”, in The global lives of things: The material culture of connections in the early modern world, Anne Gerritsen and Giorgio Riello (eds), 62-80. New York: Routledge.. Certainly throughout the 18th century the popularity of shagreen, perceived as ‘exotic’ and rare, reached its peak, and it was used for making cases and sheaths for diverse objects, such as telescopes, knives, snuff boxes, and possibly even this toilet box! As it travelled around the globe, rayskin was appreciated for different reasons and therefore treated in different ways. In Japan, for instance, its peculiar texture was considered particularly appealing (if you look at the lacquered box you can see the peculiar pattern of rayskin emphasized), whereas in Europe the skin was heavily treated in dark colors such as black and green to smoothen its ‘fishy’ feeling.

When we look at this box from the perspective of its materials, it embodies narratives of connections between Asia and Europe in both raw materials and craftsmanship, while also highlighting constant processes of local adaptation to meet the preferences of the different elites. This box could be ‘just’ a vanity object, but in reality it carries, hidden in its materiality, fascinating stories of travels, exotic lands, global trade, and finally: power. We may wonder whether these European ‘imitations’ were less valuable than those from Japan. Yet we could also speculate that these commodities conveyed, through their techniques and materials, an imaginary flavor of the 'Orient', resulting in the European imitation being just as desirable as the Asian ‘originals’ - or perhaps even more.