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Katsukawa Shun'ei. The Sumo Bout between Yotsuguruma (right) and Yamaoroshi (left). Date: 1800 or 1805/06. Similar sheet can be found at Edo Tokyo Museum. Size: Vertical Ōban. Sumo wrestler Yotsuguruma Daihachi (1772 - 1809) first appeared in the records of national tournaments in winter of 1794. Then he lost 3 matches and won zero. He first won in the spring tournament of 1797 in a match against maegashira (the fifth-highest rank of sumo wrestlers) named Kougamine. Yamaoroshi Gengo (born 1762) came in at the winter tournament of 1799 . He was much more successful in his career than Yotsuguruma, but he had never won a tournament. It was the time of great Raiden, who won most of them. In the spring tournament of 1800 Yotsuguruma and Yamaoroshi fought against each other for the first time. Yotsuguruma lost. The next time they met on the ring was at the winter tournament of 1805, and again in 1806. Both matches were won by Yamaoroshi. Yamaoroshi retired in 1809; Yotsuguruma died in 1809. -
Seated portrait of Russian diplomat Count Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov (Семён Романович Воронцо́в; 26 June 1744 – 9 July 1832). Engraved by August Weger (Born: 1823 in Nürnberg; died: 1892 in Leipzig) from the portrait painted by Richard Evans (1784–1871). Circa 1825-50. Semyon Romanovich Vorontsov, the son of Count Roman Illarionovich and Marfa Ivanovna Surmina, was born on June 15, 1744; Active Privy Councillor; Ambassador to Venice and London from 1784, for over 20 years. Died in London on June 26, 1832.
Inscription: Графъ Семенъ Романовичь Воронцовъ. Родился въ Москвѣ Iюня 15-го/26 1744, Скончался въ Лондонѣ Iюня 9-го/21 1822. | Le Comte Simon Woronzow. né à Moscou le 26 Juin 1744, Mort à Londres le 21 Juin 1832. | Richd. Evans, Peintre. - Gravé par A. Weger, Leipzig. Vorontsov family coat of arms in the middle.
Dimensions: 23 x 15 cm. Ref.: Подробный словарь русских гравированных портретов Д. А. Ровинского, том. 1, 534-540. -
Title: THE | BIOGRAPHY AND | TYPOGRAPHY | OF | WILLIAM CAXTON, | ENGLAND'S FIRST PRINTER. | BY | WILLIAM BLADES. | LONDON : | TRÜBNER & CO, 57 & 59 LUDGATE HILL. | STRASSBURG : | KARL I. TRÜBNER. | 1877. || Pagination: ffl, [2] blank, [i, ii] - t.p., imprint, [iii], iv, v - preface, [vi] - cul-de-lampe, [vii], viii - contents; [1], 2-383 [384] - imprint, 2] - blanks, bfl.; 18 plates: op. p. 8, 22, 54 (3), 60, 126 (4), 283, [311], 336, 358 (5). Collation: 8vo; [A]4 B-Z8 AA8 BB7. Exterior: 22.6 x 14.8 cm, printed on watermarked Zanders laid paper, original brown decorated paper boards, spine with decoration and lettering, marbled end-papers, water stain to bottom of upper cover, slightly rubbed, upper margin marbled, other untrimmed, binder's mark to back pastedown: "Bound by Simpson & Renshaw". Bookplates to front pastedown: upper: F. Marcham | Tempora mutantur, nos et mutamur in illis. | Hornsey | 1907"; lower: (2) "From the library of | H. Harvey Frost". Caxton, William (British, c. 1422 – 1491). Blades, William (British, 1824-1890) Frank Marcham (1883 – 1934), motto: "Times are changed, we also are changed with them". This book is based on the author's The Life and Typography of William Caxton, London: J. Lilly, 1861-63, – "A new 'Life' in a more handy form". -
Title: THE BOHEMIANS | OF | THE LATIN QUARTER. | (SCÈNES DE LA VIE DE BOHÊME.) | By HENRI MURGER. | ILLUSTRATED WITH 10 ETCHINGS FROM DESIGNS BY MONTADER. |{publisher’s device}| LONDON: | VIZETELLY & CO., 16, HENRIETTA STREET, | COVENT GARDEN. | 1888. || Pagination: [i-v] vi-xxxiv, [1] 2-317 [318 blank]; collation: 8vo, π1 (h.t.), [a]-b8, B-U8 X7 + 10 etchings by Charles Courtry after Alfred Montader (incl. frontispiece and portrait of Henri Murger). Binding: 23 x 14.5 cm, olive cloth, black lettering to cover and gilt lettering to spine. Contributors: Murger, Henri [Henry] (French, 1822 – 1861) – original text (French). Montader, Pierre Marie Alfred (French, fl. c. 1881 – 1925) – artist. Courtry, Charles Jean Louis (French, 1846 – 1897) – engraver. Vizetelly, Henry Richard (British, 1820 – 1894) – publisher. -
Pictorial album of 20 hand-coloured wood engravings by Firmin Gillot after Alfred Grévin; numbered 1 to 20, bound with tissue guards in half-brown cloth over marbled boards, publisher's gilt-lettered blue wrappers preserved, purple-blueish endpapers. Front wrapper (gilt on blue): LES FILLES D'EVE | ALBUM | DE TRAVESTISSEMENTS | PLUS OU MOINS | HISTORIQUES | Par A. GRÉVIN | — | PARIS | AUX BUREAUX : DU JOURNAL AMUSANT, DES MODES PARISIENNES | DE LA TOILETTE DE PARIS ET DU PETIT JOURNAL POUR RIRE | 20. Rue Bergère. || ; Henri Plon's imprint to back wrapper. Contributors: Grevin, Alfred (French, 1827 – 1892) Gillot, Firmin (French, 1820 – 1872) Plon, Henri (French, 1806 – 1872) Ref.: Metropoliten Museum. -
Four maps 34 x 47.5 cm each. Include insets of Versailles, Fontainebleau, Saint Cloud and St. Germain en Laye. Lithograph by Edward Weller after a map drawn and engraved by John Dower. "These maps originally appeared in the Weekly Dispatch newspaper from 1856 to 1862. They were reissued between 1863 and 1867 by Cassell, Petter and Galpin and then published collectively as Cassell's Atlas. The plates were acquired by G.W. Bacon & Co., and reissued in 1876 under the title Bacon's New Quarto Atlas ... of the Counties of England, and many times since under various titles." [WorldCat]Dimensions: 34 x 47.5 cm each.
Contributors: Weller, Edward (British, 1819 – 1884) – lithographer. Dower, John Crane (British, 1791 – 1847) – artist, engraver. Dower, John James (British, 1825 – 1901) – artist, engraver (son of John Crane Dower). -
Title: Gotenyama [御殿山] – one of the most popular cherry blossom viewing spots; it is a hill at Shinagawa [品川], the second station on the Tōkaidō road [東海道], located on the shores of Edo Bay [江戸湾]. Series: A Collection of Mountains [山つくし] (Yama tsukushi) Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 12 January 1865). Block carver: Yokokawa Takejirō, seal: [彫竹] – Hori Take. Publisher: Yama-Ta; seal: [板元, 太] – Hanmoto, Ta; Marks 19-044 | U421b: An unknown publisher in Edo, fl. c. 1815-61. Combined date seal and kiwame censor seal: Ansei 6 (1851). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche. Size: Fan print (uchiwa-e) 227 x 287 mm. -
Artist: Utagawa Yoshitsuya [歌川 芳艶] (Japanese, 1822 – 1866). Publisher: Kojimaya Jūbei [小島屋重兵衛] (Japanese, c. 1797 – 1869). Date seal and double nanushi censor seals: Kunigasa & Yoshimura, Kōka 5 (1849). Signed: Ichieisai Yoshitsuya ga [英斎芳艶画] in a red double gourd cartouche. Two men are fishing with a net off the coast of Shinagawa, in the Edo Bay. -
Small softcover volume, ‘édition minuscule’ in-32, 13 x 8 cm, publisher’s wrappers, pp.: [1-6] (h.t., t.p., advert.), [7] 8-160 [2 table/blank], included in pagination 8 pasted etchings on India paper after Félicien Rops and one blank leaf next to plate 1; laid paper with watermarks, some pages uncut. Title-page: DOCUMENTS | POUR SERVIR A L’HISTOIRE DE NOS MŒURS | – | LES | BAS-FONDS | DE LA SOCIÉTÉ | PAR | HENRY MONNIER | AVEC | 8 dessins à la plume | de F. R. | {fleuron} | ÉDITION MINUSCULE | tirée | à 64 exemplaires. || Pencil handwriting on top: 8 gravures de Felicien Rops | 250 –, in the bottom: [1879]. Print run: 64 copies; clandestine edition. Catalogue raisonné: Vicaire V, 1019; Bory p. 100 (though here is the frontispiece for Les Bas-fonds de la société par Joseph Prudhomme [Henry Monnier], 1864, with all the sheets together; Dutel I, A-134. Ref: (1) Poulet-Malassis & ses amis № 90 [LIB-3118.2022] ; (2) Félicien Rops: L'oeuvre graphique complète. / Ouvrage établi et présenté par Jean-François Bory. Avec un texte contemporain de l'artiste par J. K. Huysmans. — Arthur Hubschmidt, 1977. [LIB-2241.2019] Contributors: Henry Monnier (French, 1799 – 1877) – author. Félicien Rops (Belgian, 1833 – 1898) – artist. Henry Kistemaeckers (Belgian, 1851 – 1934) – publisher. Auguste Poulet-Malassis (French, 1825 – 1878) -
Hardcover, 20.2 x 15.5 cm, owner’s half blue morocco binding over marbled boards with gilt lettering to spine, marbled endpapers, extracts from La Revue Blanche, numbers 91 and 92 of March 15 and April 1 of 1897 (année VII, tome XII), publisher’s pink wrappers preserved, pp. [2] [1-5] 6-160. Ref.: Bridget Alsdorf. Vallotton, Fénéon, and the Legacy of the Commune in Fin-de-siècle France. Portraits: François [Quico] Merlin Colonel Merlin (French, 1814 – 1900) Adolphe Thiers (French, 1797 – 1877) Commandant Gaveau Fortuné Henry (French, 1821 – 1882) Otto von Bismarck (German, 1815 – 1898) Henri, comte de Chambord (French, 1820 – 1883) Louis Rossel (French, 1844 – 1871) François Huet Tranquille (French, 1842 – after 1879) Joseph Vinoy (French, 1803 – 1880) Raoul Rigault (French, 1846 – 1871) Eugène Varlin (French, 1839 – 1871) Théophile Ferré (French, 1845 – 1871) Georges Darboy (French, 1813 – 1871) Auguste Vermorel (French, 1841 – 1871) Jaroslaw Dombrowski [Jarosław Dąbrowski] (Polish-French, 1836 – 1871) Contributors: Félix Fénéon (French, 1861 – 1944) Félix Vallotton (French, 1865 – 1925) La Revue Blanche (Paris) Imprimerie Alcan-Lévy -
Hand-coloured chromolithography on wove paper, 600 x 470 mm; black ink stamp “4921” to reverse, horizontal and vertical centrefolds. Image of Napoléon III on horseback, in a frame; lettering under the frame: 34 — Déposé | NAPOLÉON III | EMPEREUR DES FRANÇAIS. | Lith. de Gangel frères et P. Didion, à Metz. || Gangel frères et P. Didion (Metz) – printer/publisher. Paulin Didion (French, 1831 – 1879) -
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (attributed to). Memorial portrait (Shini-e, death picture) of Nakamura Utaemon IV (a.k.a. Shikan II) as Taira no Kiyomori (1118-81). Date: 1852. Reference: [LIB-1030.2016] Robert Schaap. Heroes & ghosts: Japanese prints by Kuniyoshi, 1797-1861. — Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 1998; p. 165, image 176. [LIB-3316.2024] Chris Uhlenbeck, Jim Dwinger, Josephine Smit. The Riddles of Ukiyo-e: Women and Men in Japanese Prints. — Brussels: Ludion, 2023; pp. 242-3, № 119. Provenance: Herbert Egenolf Collection, Germany. Literature: Suzuki (1992) 317. Trimmed, unsigned. -
Iron tsuba of oval form with a shakudō fukurin and rough surface decorated by low relief carving and brass inlay with a centipede emerging from under the rock on both sides.
Edo period.Size: 78.9 x 73.6 x 3.8 mm
Unsigned. However, this tsuba may be (though with reservation) attributed to Misumi Kōji school. There is some information regarding this master(s) in Tsuba. An aesthetic study by Kazutaro Torigoye and Robert E. Haynes (from the Tsuba Geijutsu-kō of Kazataro Torigoye. Edited and published by Alan L. Harvie for the Nothern California Japanese Sword Club, 1994-1997) on pages 163-4, though I was not able to locate the tsuba in the original publication. Possibly, this fragment of the book was added by Robert Haynes. Markus Sesko speculates about Misumi in his The Japanese toso-kinko Schools.// Lulu Inc., 2012 on pages 374-5: "Misumi Kōjo Tsuba. Iron plate, elliptical shape, shakudō takabori suemon, yamagane fukurin. Centipede." But of course, visual similarity does not prove anything. I was not able to find any traces of signature or a triangle on the seppa-dai.
Misumi Kōji Tsuba on p. 163.
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Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞], a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代 歌川 豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche Block carver: Yokokawa Takejirō [横川竹二郎] (Japanese, fl. 1845 – 1863), seal: 彫竹 – Hori Take. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. c. 1845 – 1847). Combined date and kiwame seal: Ansei 5 (II-XII/1858). Size: Untrimmed fan print (uchiwa-e), 300 x 232 mm.A young woman adjusting her hairpin on a balcony during the Tanabata festival, as inscribed on the white folding fan: [七夕] (Tanabata).
Inscription on the blue book (print title): Early autumn [はつ秋や] (hatsu akiya), inscription on the purple book (series title): Short love songs, second volume [端唄の意 二編] (Hauta no kokoro nihen). According to Marks (2010), Hauta no kokoro nihen series of fan prints was published by Ibaya in 1858 (p. 267|P6871).
The series refers to love songs of a certain type popular in late Edo. They were performed with the accompaniment of a shamisen, “Seven herbs of autumn, the song of the insects is not heard; the bodies of lightning bugs are burnt, and the precious writings of love are getting thinner like the song of the insects as I am waiting for you. So, on an early autumn evening, I spot the glitter of a lightning bug that lingered among the autumn grasses, and while listening to the pine cricket, I am singing with my heart troubled by love". [Tokyo National Museum; translation provided by Elena Varshavsky].Tanabata [たなばた] or [七夕] – meaning "Evening of the seventh", also known as the Star Festival [星祭] (Hoshi matsuri) – is a Japanese festival originating from the Chinese Qixi Festival. One popular Tanabata custom is to write one's wishes on a piece of paper and hang that piece of paper on a specially erected bamboo tree, in the hope that the wishes become true.
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Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代 歌川 豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). An untrimmed fan print titled Fuji Tsukuba aiaigasa, shows the actors Ichikawa Ebizo V [市川海老蔵] and the onnagata actor Iwai Shijaku I [岩井紫若] sharing an umbrella against the wind. Tsukuba, about 50 kilometres from Edo, was an area where both Fuji and Mount Tsukuba could be viewed together. Mount Fuji being the female and Mount Tsukuba the male. An aizuri-e background (common to all the designs in this set). A play on images and words. Actors: Ichikawa Danjūrō VII [市川団十郎] (Japanese, 1791 – 1859); other names: Ichikawa Ebizō V [市川海老蔵], Ichikawa Hakuen II, Ichikawa Shinnosuke I. Iwai Matsunosuke I [岩井松之助] (Japanese, 1804 – 1845); other names: Iwai Hanshirō VII, Iwai Shijaku I [岩井紫若], Iwai Komurasaki I. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburo [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. c. 1845 – 1847). The publisher’s seal is on the umbrella. Date: circa 1832. Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga in a red double-gourd cartouche. From the series of fan prints:
Two more prints from the series 'Fuji and Tsukuba sharing an umbrella' (Fuji Tsukuba aiaigasa), not in this Collection:
SVJP-0341.2021
Kabuki actors Onoe Kikugorō III and Iwai Kumesaburo II. Year: c. 1832; Publisher: No seal; Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga From Kunisada Project. 
Kabuki actors Bandō Minosuke II and Iwai Shijaku I. Year: c. 1832; Publisher: No seal; Signed: Kōchōrō Kunisada ga From Kunisada Project. -
DICTIONNAIRE | d'Argot | FIN-DE-SIÈCLE | PAR | Charles VIRMAITRE | {publisher's device "A.C."} | PARIS | A. CHARLES, LIBRAIRE | 8, RUE MONSIEUR-LE-PRINCE, 8 | 1894 || Pagination : [i-ix] x-xxiii [xxiv blank] [1] 2-336 + [3] 6-176; note: in Supplement – before page 6 only 3 pages. Collation: π4 ii8 [1]-1718 196 (180 leaves) + [1]17 3-[7]18 916 (87 leaves). Binding: Brown cloth, blind double-fillets, gilt lettering to the title. -
![[Maurice Joly]. Dialogue aux Enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu ou la politique de Machiavel au XIX eme Siecle, par Un Contemporain.Publisher: Bruxelles, Imprimerie de A. Mertens et Fils, 1864.](https://varshavskycollection.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/LIB-1034-d-scaled-500x500.jpg)
Title page: DIALOGUE AUX ENFERS | ENTRE | MACHIAVEL | ET MONTESQUIEU | OU LA POLITIQUE DE MACHIAVEL | AU XIXe SIÈCLE, | PAR UN CONTEMPORAIN. | {6 lines of citations} | ~ | BRUXELLES, | IMPRIMERIE DE A. MERTENS ET FILS, | RUE DE L’ESCALIER, 22. | 1864 ||Description: 18.5 x 12 cm, quarter red morocco over marbled boards, spine with raised bands ruled blind, gilt lettering, marbled endpapers.
Collation: 12mo; fep, 3 blanks, π4 1-2712, 292, 3 blanks, fep.; total 180 leaves. Pagination: [6] [2 h.t] [2 t.p.] [i] ii-iii [iv] [1] 2-337 [338] [2 errata] [6]. Bookplate to front pastedown: “Le Mis de Biencourt” (probably Mademoiselle Anna Charles de Biencourt). See other copies: LIB-2913.2021 and LIB-0460.2015. Other related objects: SVVP-0062.2021. The publication was funded by the author and smuggled into France. Contributors: Maurice Joly (French, 1829 – 1878) -
Oval cartouche in the upper-left corner, with tall “s”: Plan | OF | PARIS | and | SUBURBS | With all the Cross Streets | Before | THE REVOLUTION. || No indication of the makers. Dimensions: Sheet: 32.5 x 44.3 cm; Image: 28.5 x 41.3 cm.
