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Publisher’s grey pictorial wrappers with lettering in red: PARIS | Bibliothèque érotique | Gérard Nordmann | Seconde partie | Jeudy 14 et vendredi 15 décembre 2006 | CHRISTIE'S || Red spine with white lettering from top to bottom, multiple illustrations in colour, 27 x 21 cm. Pagination: [1-3] 4-305, 567 lots. The 2nd part of the auction of the library of Gérard Nordmann (Swiss, 1930 – 1992), held by Christie's in Paris on the 14th and 15th of December 2006. The 1st part took place on the 27th of April 2006, see [LIB-2828.2021]. -
Iron tsuba of round form decorated with the design of a butterfly in openwork (sukashi) with details carved in kebori. Eyes inlaid in brass (one inlay is missing). Unsigned. Attributed to Bizen Shōami school, early Edo period (17th century). Dimensions: 80.4 x 80.6 x 4.4 mm References At Haynes Catalog #6, p. 18-19, Lot 30: "Famous Ikeda butterfly design" (Ikeda family of Inaba and Okayama, and at least 7 other families). Ca. 1700. Shōami of Kyoto, no doubt. Ht 8.2 cm, Th. 5 mm. ["Important tsuba, menuki, bokuto, woodblock prints, koshirae, sword pistol and kana mono". San Francisco, June 1-26, 1983. Catalog #6. Robert E. Haynes, Ltd.]Similar tsuba at Haynes Catalog #9, p.71, lot 143: the classic Shoami tsuba of the mon of the Ikeda family. This example, as most, seems to be made by the same hand as the others. See Haynes sale number 6, lot 30, for an identical example. The eye is brass. From an old French collection. Ht. 7.9 cm., Th. 5 mm.
Haynes Catalog #6, lot 30.
Similar tsuba in the Randolph B. Caldwell Collection, 1994, page 24, №13: "A circular iron tsuba pierced in positive sukashi with a butterfly within an angular rim, details engraved. The eye inlaid in brass [in my specimen the inlay is missing on the omote side]. Unsigned. Bizen Shōami, Momoyama period. Dimensions: 8.0 x 8.2 x 0.5 cm. Similar example: Durand-Ruel, collection Ch. Gilloz, number 1302. [SV: that's possibly the 'old French collection' of Robert Haynes.]
Haynes Catalog #9, lot 143.
If we accept Haynes' theory regarding the genealogy and history of Bizen Shōami family, Momoyama period attribution would seem unlikely. I am leaning towards the early to mid 17th century.
Caldwell Collection, #13.
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Round plate with a blue and white design of blossoming bamboo and chrysanthemums in the centre with a border of lattice and floral sprays. Diameter: 34 cm, Haight: 5.5 cm. -
Round plate with a blue and white design of blossoming peony behind a fence with lattice and floral border; flowers to the bottom. Diameter: 33 cm, Haight: 4.5 cm. -
Plate with crane, bird, plants, and four treasures. Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration and illegible factory mark to the bottom. Ming Dynasty [大明] (1368 – 1644); Wanli Era (1572 – 1620); Late 16th – Early 17th century. Diameter: 19.5 cm; Height: 3 cm -
Footed plate with scalloped rim, centre decorated with running yak or another even-toed animal among flowers, jewel diaper pattern to the inner lip; foliage motif to the outside is bordered with foliage above and lotus leaves below. Porcelain with underglaze blue decoration. Ming Dynasty [大明] (1368 – 1644); Wanli Era (1572 – 1620); Late 16th – Early 17th century. Diameter: 25.5 cm; Height: 4.2 cm -
Underglaze cobalt blue and white porcelain plate decorated with a bamboo border, key fret above the blue ring, and a bush of chrysanthemums in the centre. The bottom is decorated with stylized clouds and flowers, a border of lotus petals and signed with a general mark in the centre. Diameter: 29.5 cm; Height: 3.5 cm. -
Underglaze cobalt blue and white porcelain plate decorated with a falcon on a pine tree and rough waves beneath; rim with a stylized wave design; seven spur marks on the reverse. Diameter: 31 cm; Height: 5 cm; Diameter of the foot: 18 cm. -
Underglaze cobalt blue and white Zhangzhou (Swatow) porcelain plate decorated vigorously and spontaneously with a bird in the landscape, and flowers in oval cartouches among waves or fish scale diaper. Sand particles on the base. Ming Dynasty [大明] (1368 – 1644); Wanli Era (1572 – 1620); Late 16th – Early 17th century. Diameter: 28.2 cm; Height: 4.0 cm -
Small six-lobed tripod censer with an outer surface decorated in a form of dragon skin, distant parts of the feet and centre of the bottom unglazed, a drip of blue glaze inside. China, the Tang dynasty [唐朝] (618 – 907). Diameter: 8 cm; Height: 7 cm. -
Hand-coloured lithography on wove paper, 250 x 332 mm; black ink stamp “5035” to reverse. Under the frame left: "Paris, chez Riboni, éd. r. Galande, 51"; right: "Paris, lith. Bulla, Pl. Maubert, 26". Below: "BOMBARDEMENT DE SEBASTOPOL. — THE BOMBARDMENT OF SÉBASTOPOLE". Text to bottom. Printers/publishers: Antoine Bulla (fl. 1815 – 1877), François Bulla (fl. c. 1814 – 1855). -
Iron tsuba of round form with dam-shaped rim (dote-mimi) pierced with hitsu-ana and two udenuki-ana (probably cut later on) decorated in flat inlay (hira-zōgan) with vines and symbols of thunder or lightning (possibly - family crest, mon). Hitsu-ana and nakago-ana with copper sekigane.
Ōnin or Heianjō school, or, possibly Kaga or Umetada school. Momoyama period or earlier (Muromachi), 16th century. Unsigned.Size: 64.5 x 63.8 x 2.2 (center), 4.2 (rim) mm.
Provenance: Lundgren Collection: [Japanese sword-fittings and metalwork in the Lundgren Collection. Published by Otsuka Kogeisha Co., Ltd., Tokyo 1992], №31; The Lundgren Collection of Japanese Swords, Sword Fittings and A Group of Miochin School Metalwork. Christie's Auction: Tuesday, 18 November 1997, London. Sales "GOTO-5881". Christie's, 1997, №2. Lundgren's description at Christie's: Heianjo tsuba. Unsigned. The circular plate decorated in brass hirazogan with flowers, plants and symbols of thunder, dote mimi and udenuki ana, late Muromachi period (16th century). Tokyo 1992 description: Sword guard with design of flowering plants and frets in inlay. Unsigned. Heianjo inlay school. 6.35 x 6.3 cm, thickness of rim 0.40 cm. Iron. Flat brass inlay. Muromachi-Momoyama Period, 16th century. Provenance: The Second John Harding. A somewhat look-a-like pieces can be found in various catalogues. The one in Naunton Collection, №172, is signed: Umetada of Yamashiro: "Iron, small, almost circular, with raised oval rim, inlaid all over with leaves and scrolls in brass hirazōgan." -
A pictorial photographic album, 19.5 x 15.3 cm, hardcover, paper pictorial covers, pictorial endpapers, pp. [2] 3-39 [40]; total 20 leaves; text by Susan Jacobasch, photographs by Josef Breitenbach. Published in connection with the exhibition "Josef Breitenbach" on October, 10 – November 28, 1998, at Galerie Bodo Niemann in Berlin. Josef Breitenbach (Jewish-German-American, 1896 – 1984). -
Bronze tsuba of mokkō form with narrow slightly raised rim carved in kebori with the sea weed and inlaid with a lobster (ebi) made of copper on the face and two sea shells made of shakudo on the back. Lobster's antennae inlaid in gold, and eyes inlaid in shakudo. Ishime-ji treated surface.
Unsigned.
Late Edo period (mid-19th century). Dimensions: 76.3 x 71.1 x 3.7 mm -
A two-volume set. Volume 1: GERMAN POPULAR STORIES | translated from the | Kinder und Haus Märchen, | COLLECTED BY | M. M. GRIMM, | from oral tradition. | [Vignette] | JAMES ROBINS & Co. LONDON. |AND | JOSEPH ROBINS JUNR & Co. DUBLIN. | MDCCCXXV.|| 12mo, pp. xii, 240; engraved title vignette and 11 plates by George Cruikshank, with a fine proof (?) of the plate illustrating ‘The Jew in the bush’ on India paper laid onto verso of leaf bound between half-title and title. Table of contents: Hans in luck -- The travelling musicians -- The golden bird -- The fisherman and his wife -- The tom-tit and the bear -- The twelve dancing princesses -- Rose-bud -- Tom thumb -- The grateful beasts -- Jorinda and Jorindel -- The waggish musician -- The queen bee -- The dog and the sparrow -- Frederick and Catherine -- The three children of fortune -- King grisly-beard -- The adventures of chanticleer and partlet -- Snow-drop -- The elves and the shoemaker -- The turnip -- Old sultan -- The lady and the lion -- The jew in the bush -- The king of the golden mountain -- The golden goose -- Mrs. fox -- Hansel and Grettel -- The giant with the three golden hairs -- The frog prince -- The fox and the horse -- Rumpel-stilts-kin.; Volume 2: GERMAN POPULAR STORIES | translated from the | Kinder und Haus Märchen, | COLLECTED BY | M. M. GRIMM, | from oral tradition. | [Vignette] | JAMES ROBINS & Co. LONDON. |AND | JOSEPH ROBINS JUNR & Co. DUBLIN. | MDCCCXXVI.|| 12mo, iv, 256, [2]; engraved title vignette and 9 plates by George Cruikshank. Table of contents: The goose-girl -- Faithful John -- The blue light -- Ashputtel -- The young giant and the tailor -- The crows and the soldier -- Pee-wit -- Hans and his wife Grettel -- Cherry, or the frog-bride -- Mother Holle -- The water of life -- Peter the goatherd -- The four clever brothers -- The elfin-grove -- The salad -- The nose -- The five servants -- Cat-skin -- The robber-bridegroom -- The three sluggards -- The seven ravens -- Roland and may-bird -- The mouse, the bird, and the sausage -- The juniper tree. Binding: bound without advertisements in 19th-century brown morocco by Leighton, spines decorated and lettered in gilt, gilt edges, marbled endpapers; armorial bookplates of Thomas Gaisford and Charles Tennant to endpapers. Note: The third edition of vol. 1 (first C. Baldwyn 1823) and the first edition of vol. 2 of the first English translation of Grimm’s Fairy Tales – including Tom Thumb, the Elves and the Shoemaker, Hansel and Grettel, the Frog Prince, and Rumpelstiltskin – with George Cruikshank’s celebrated illustrations. Of Cruikshank’s work, Ruskin remarked, ‘The etchings are the finest things, next to Rembrandt’s, that, as far as I know, has been done since etching was invented. You cannot look at them too much, nor copy them too often’ (The Elements of Drawing, 1857). Provenance: (1) Thomas Gaisford (1779-1855), classical scholar, Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford University, Dean of Christ Church, curator of the Bodleian Library and delegate of the Clarendon Press. (2) Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet (1823-1906), a Scottish industrialist who amassed a notable library and collection of pictures at his Peeblesshire estate, ‘The Glen’. Catalogue raisonné: Albert M. Cohn 369. -
Square softcover, 28.5 x 28.7 cm, pictorial wrappers, pp.: [1-5] 6-208, ils. Title-page: Chikanobu | Modernity and Nostalgia in Japanese Prints | by Bruce A. Coats | with essays by | Allen Hockley, Kyoko Kurita and Joshua S. Mostow | Scripps College, Claremont, CA, USA | in association with | Hotei Publishing | Leiden, The Netherlands | {publisher’s device} || Contributors: Toyohara Chikanobu [豊原周延] (Japanese, 1838 – 1912) Bruce Arthur Coats (American, modern) -
An iron tsuba of oval form decorated with a water plantain (omodaka) carved in low relief and water drops inlaid in gold.
Signed: Bushū jū Masamitsu.
Bushū-Itō school.Height: 71.8; Width: 67.3; Thickness: 3.6; Weight: 96 g.
Mid to late Edo period; 18th-19th century.
There were several tsuba artists with the name of Masamitsu. The one who worked with iron and spelled [正光] is mentioned at Markus Sesko's 'Genealogies' on page 106 in Akasaka School of Edo section as Masamitsu Gorōbei , student of Tadatoki, 4th generation Akasaka master. The name is not mentioned at Torigoye/Haynes 'Tsuba. An Aesthetic Study' in the list of Bushū-Itō family masters on page 181. -
Title-page: DORAT | LES BAISERS | PRÉCÉDÉS | DU MOIS DE MAI | POÈME | COMPOSITIONS ORIGINALES | DE | BRUNELLESCHI | EDDIS | 1947 || Description: 23.3 x 19 cm, French slapped wrappers, sunned and heavy foxed, without a slipcase; [1-6] (h.t. with owner’s inscription / limitation with № 18, t.p., d.t.p.), 7-137 [138] [6] (colophon) plus 23 stencil-coloured (au pochoir) photogravure plates after Umberto Brunelleschi, his head- and tailpieces (total 60 designs). Printed by Gaston Maillet & Cie in Saint-Ouen on April 15, 1947. Photogravure by Deberni and Peignot under direction of R. Perrot. Limitation: 3,000 copies numbered 1 to 3,000 of which 500 copies on Vélin de Luxe (1–500) enriched with two suites of plates, one in colour and one toned, before letters; 2,500 on Vélin de Fabrication Spéciale of which copies numbered 500–1,000 enriched with one suite before letters, and 2,000 copies numbered 1,001–3,000. Besides, there are 200 additional copies numbered with Roman numbers reserved for foreign bibliophiles. This particular copy bears number 18, however, I don’t think it is printed on Vélin de Luxe, whatever it is, and does not have an extra suite of plates. Owner’s inscription pasted to h.t.: A Denise ce livre audacieux | mais qui par son art sait | tout faire pardonner — | Jane Darboy. Provenance: Jane Darboy (French, fl. 1932 – 1948) – a French writer.
