In the 1950's Namiki released a line of limited edition cigarette boxes. This was long before the term "Limited Edition" was commonly used, but this is perhaps the best word to use for these boxes.

Today these maki-e boxes are exceedingly rare, and you won't see too many of these for sale.

One of the retired Pilot Salesmen that I know told me that he thought that these boxes were never offered for sale, but given to all the employees on Pilot's 40th Anniversary. If that is true then the box was presented in 1958.

The maki-e technique is hiramaki-e and togidashi. Flat, smooth layers of lacquer with a ton of gold dust sprinkled both on the top of the box and inside.

What makes this lacquer box extra special is that it still has the outer Japanese cedar presentation box, which is also signed by the artist.

This box is signed by Pilot Artist Masaharu Sakamoto, and the box is 14 X 8 cm. The box could be idealy used to house your maki-e pen collection.

I found this box while browsing in a Kamakura antique store. Sometimes I see later cheap plastic imitation boxes that resemble this box, but as I examined this box and I realized that it was a Namiki box, I nearly dropped it.