Set of tray and brush

This set of collecting tray and brush in lacquered wood, comes from the collection of the House Museum Barbera dels Aragonés. This piece dates from the early 19th century. Both the tray and the brush have a red background and decoration with oriental soldiers motifs in gold and red tones with black outlines. In the scene we see a dream image of distant lands, with samurai warriors at the foot of Mount Fuji. 

The drawing shows us an interesting Japanese history, specifically from the "Meiji" Era (1862- 1912). In these 45 years, Japan went from being a country where traditions and life had hardly changed in many centuries to becoming a modern world power. It was a very fast process and caused a lot of expectation in the West. 

The disappearance of traditions and the adoption of western customs, caused artisans to start producing and manufacturing objects for the western market. In Europe and North America, the interest in this distant culture made these artisan products in great demand. The productions of the objects and pieces were designed for export and therefore, to Western taste. The crumb collecting tray were typically occidental, no oriental objects, since there was probably no bread on a Japanese table.

Many specialized stores were opened where these objects were sold, especially Paris, but also in other capitals. In Barcelona an establishment called El Mikado traded directly with Japan and had one of its branch stores in Valencia. Maybe the Aragonés family bought this tray and brush set there. 

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Tray: height: 260 mm; length: 250 mm; diam.: 55 mm.
Brush: height: 30 mm; length: 340 mm; diam.: 40 mm.
Nº inv. Vilamuseu 004277 and 008297