<p>Within twenty years there has gradually appeared in our country a variety of Japanese objects conspicuous for their novelty and beauty,?lacquers, pottery and porcelain, forms in wood and metal, curious shaped boxes, quaint ivory carvings, fabrics in cloth and paper, and a number of other objects as perplexing in their purpose as the inscriptions which they often bore. Most of these presented technicalities in their work as enigmatical as were ...