This box is a gift from the Emperor Shōwa of Japan to Queen Elizabeth II on the event of her coronation in 1953. (After WW2, Japanese-British relations normalised with the Treaty of San Fransisco, signed in 1951).
The box was made in the Meiji era (1890's), and is wooden with lacquer work (urushi) on the surface. Most of the lacquer is gold, but the beautiful heron in the middle is silver. It is believed this is the work of Shirayama Shōsai who revived lacquer art in the late Meiji period (the art of lacquer was invented in the Edo period).
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