/Collection
  • Hardcover, 333 x 247 mm, black cloth with gilt facsimile to front board and gilt lettering to spine, aubergine dust jacket with white lettering and red facsimile over black panel to front and back, crimson endpapers, laid paper, unpaginated; pp.: [4] h.t./blank, t.p./imprint, [2] text by John Hollander, 61 leaves of plates; originally published in 1969 by Rhinoceros Press, New York, as a limited-edition portfolio with slipcase. Title-page: Fornicon | (in frame) BY TOMI UNGERER | GROVE PRESS  NEW YORK || Jean-Thomas [Tomi] Ungerer (French,1931 – 2019) John Hollander (American, 1929 – 2013)
  • Исэ-Моногатари. Лирическая повесть древней Японии. Перевод и предисловие Н. Конрад. Гос. изд-во "Всемирная литература", 1923.

    Перевод на русский язык (с японского издания 1912 года) был выполнен выдающимся советским востоковедом Н И. Конрадом и опубликован в 1923 году издательством «Всемирная литература». Неполностью разрезана, залита по краям, надрывы обложки.

  • 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). Media: Untrimmed fan print (uchiwa-e), 230 x 295 mm. Combined date seal and kiwame censor seal: Ansei 6 (1859). Title: Princess Sotoori [衣通姫] (Sotoori-hime) – Sotoori-hime was a concubine of Emperor Ingyo (reigned AD 412-53), and one of the Three Gods of Japanese Poetry [和歌三神] (Waka sanjin). Series: Chronicles of Elegant Women [風雅女史傳] (Fūga joshiden). The sign on the torii (Shinto shrine gates) reads: Mountain king shrine [山王宮] – it is the Sannō Shrine at the Nagata Riding Grounds in Edo. A print with these gates is at MFA (Boston) # 21.9853. Other prints from the same series in this collection: SVJP-0343.2021 — Tamagiku: SVJP-0400.2023 — Saiko: Note: Special thanks to Horst Graebner, who helped decipher and understand the meaning.  
  • Artist: Utagawa Toyokuni I [歌川豊国] (1769–1825). Title: 「しなのやおこん 瀬川菊之丞」「帯屋長右衛門 嵐雛助」 Kabuki play: Katsuragawa Renri no Shigarami [桂川連理柵]. According to Waseda University Cultural Resource Database, the play was performed at Ichimura-za (Edo) on the 2nd month of Kansei 12 (year 1800) under the title 楼門五山桐 さんもんごさんのきり. Publisher: Nishimuraya Yohachi [西村屋与八] (Japanese, c. 1751 – 1869)., Play by Suga Sensuke [菅専助] (ca. 1728 – 1791) in two acts. First performed at Kita Horie-za in Osaka in October 1776. Based on a real incident occurring sometime in the Kyōhō era (1716-35), this story was first dramatized in 1761. The first Kabuki drama to stem from this play was in 1777 at Osaka's Araki-za. Obiya Chōemon, a married obi merchant (sitting with abacus) in his forties, meets his neighbour's daughter Ohan (standing behind Obiya), who is young enough to be his daughter, at an inn in Ishibe; the two fall in love and pledged their troth. Ohan becomes pregnant. After a series of misfortunes, the lovers rush to Katsuragawa (Katsura River), where they drown themselves.

    Segawa Kikunojō III (Japanese, 1751 – 1810); other names: Segawa Senjo, Segawa Rokō III, Segawa Tomisaburō I, Ichiyama Tomisaburō, Ichiyama Shichinosuke. The actor held the name of Segawa Kikunojō III from the 11th lunar month of 1774 to the 7th lunar month of 1801. He surpassed all the actors of his time in both female and male roles, especially in the former, and achieved tremendous public acclaim.

    Arashi Hinasuke II [嵐雛助] (Japanese, c. 1774 – 1801); other names: Nakamura Jūzō III, Kanō Hidenosuke I, Arashi Hidenosuke I. The actor held the name of Arashi Hinasuke II from the 1st lunar month of 1794 to the 2nd lunar month of 1801. Hi died in Edo on the 4th day of the 2nd lunar month of 1801. For the same characters illustrated by Utagawa Kuniyoshi see SVJP-0333.2021. Sources:
    1. Historical Dictionary of Japanese Traditional Theatre By Samuel L. Leiter. Second edition, 2014.
    2. Kabuki Encyclopedia. An English-Langauge Adaptation of Kabuki Jiten. Samuel L. Leiter. Greenwood Press, 1979.
    3. http://www.kabuki21.com/
    4. Waseda University Cultural Resource Database
  • Iron tsuba of round form with design of iris and snowflake in openwork (ko-sukashi or small cut-outs) outlined with brass wire. Three concentric rows of brass dots (ten-zōgan), with a brass circular line inside the innermost row of dots (missing on the back). Hitsu-ana is not outlined with brass wire, which let us suppose that it was cut out at a later date. Iron and brass. Ko-sukashi and ten-zōgan technique. Mid Muromachi period (1454-1513). Height: 74.0 mm, Width: 73.6 mm, Thickness: 3.0 mm.

    NBTHK certification of 1968: "Kicho". Condition is relatively poor: rust, missing inlay, scratches.

    While representation of the snowflake is rather standard, the meaning of the other cut-out design was initially less clear. Similar symbol was found at (1) "Kokusai Tosogu Kai, International Convention & Exhibition, September 24-25, 2005, The Frazier Historical Arms Museum, Louisville, Kentucky, USA"; on page 21 there is a photograph J-6 of a ko-tosho tsuba with "iris theme openwork"; (2) Japanese Swords and Tsuba from the Professor A. Z. Freeman and the Phyllis Sharpe Memorial collections. Sotheby's, London, Thursday 10 April 1997; page 11, lot 6 - a ko-katchushi tsuba of early Muromachi period fith "simple design of stylized iris". In both sources the symbol is explained as 'iris" (kakitsubata).

    Freeman and Sharpe collections. Sotheby's, 1997.

    Kokusai Tosogu Kai, September 24-25, 2005.

  • Round tsuba of iron; well forged thin plate decorated with a rudder (kaji) and an oar, or paddle (kai) with a water drop, executed in a combination of negative (in-sukashi) and positive (ji-sukashi) openwork. It may be Ko-Tōshō (old Tōshō) or just Tōshō school, without a 'Ko'. The characteristics of the plate point toward an older piece, however the combination of negative and positive silhouettes pulls the date of manufacture in an opposite direction. Muromachi period. Height: 90.0 mm. Width: 89.0 mm. Rim thickness: 2.1 mm. Center thickness: 2.3 mm. Nakago-ana: height = 29 mm, width = 8.8 mm. A rudder and an oar design is classified by John W. Dower as "Sailing vessels and gear": "Unlike many other motifs, sailing vessels and sailing gear failed to collect an interesting lore or to develop levels of meaning." Merrily Baird does not say anything about these symbols. Yuzuri Okada says: "Ships, sails, rudders, etc. also supply motive of the same class as wheels." He does not provide us with the description of the motive supplied by the wheel. The same motif is used on Ōnin tsuba in this collection:
  • Iron tsuba of round form with slanting rays of light (shakoh) Christian motif (Jesuit's IHS symbol) in openwork (sukashi). Traditional description of this kind of design is called "tokei", or "clock gear". Edo period.

    Size: 83.4 x 83.1 x 4.4 mm

    Signed Bushū-jū Ujishige saku (武州住氏重作) [Markus Sesko]. Ujishige (died 1677), 3rd generation of the Katsuki-Gondayu line; 1st gen. Ujiie came from Kyoto to Kaga to work for the Maeda family. There was another Ujishige, 4th generation Kaneko (?), who died in 1867 [M. Sesko, Genealogies...], but this tsuba looks a bit earlier than that. This particular Ujishige states in his signature that he is from Bushū, or Musashi Province, modern Tokyo Metropolis. He might have moved from Bushū to Kaga, of course. There is no artist with the name Ujishige in Bushū-Ito School anyway.

    For information regarding shakoh tsuba see article 'Kirishitan Ikenie Tsuba by Fred Geyer at Kokusai Tosogu Kai; The 2nd International Convention & Exhibition, October 18-23, 2006, pp. 84-91.  
  • Mikhail Belomlinsky. Born 1934, Russia. Vadim Krolin, hypnosis session. Watercolor painting on paper from Chukotka expedition, ca. 1970s. Size: 36 x 48 cm.
  • Circular tsuba (marugata ) with design of futatsu-domoe (twofold tomoe) in negative openwork (kage-sukashi), folded-over rim (uchikaeshi-mimi ). The ‘head’ of the left tomoe altered to form an opening for scabbard accessory (kata-hitsu-ana), adorned with gold ategane fitting with file marks (tate-yasurime). The hammer-blow finish of the surface (tsuchime-ji). Signed to the left of nakaga-ana: Yamakichibei (山吉兵). Attributed by Steve Waszak a the Second Generation (Nidai) master.

    NBTHK paper [translated by Markus Sesko]:

    Tomoe-sukashi-tsuba (巴透し鐔).

    KANTEI-SHO (鑑定書) - APPRAISAL No 451718

    Futatsu-domoe sukashi-tsuba (二巴透鐔) ‒ Tsuba with two tomoe comma openwork design

    Signed: Yamakichibei (山吉兵)

    Round shape (marugata ), iron, hammerblow finish (tsuchime-ji ), negative openwork design (kage-sukashi ), folded-over rim (uchikaeshi-mimi ), one opening for scabbard accessory

    (kata-hitsu-ana) (with gold ategane fitting)

    According to the result of the shinsa committee of our society, we judge this work as authentic

    and rank it as Hozon Tōsōgu.

    February 20, 2007

    [Foundation] Nihon Bijutsu Tōken Hozon Kyōkai, NBTHK (日本美術刀劍保存協會)

    Diameter: 76 mm, thickness at center 3.9 mm, thickness at rim: 5.1 mm; weight: 102.5 g

    Tomoe (Comma): The character (Chinese pronunciation bā). A pattern resembling the two-comma tomoe (futatsu-domoe) has been found in ancient cultures on all inhabited continents. ...aside from their military function, a ritual or fetish value, perhaps related to their testicular shape. It also has yin-yang connotation. The gold sekigane confirms the high value of the piece to the owner.

  • A two-volume set: (1) Thomas Hugo. The Bewick Collector. A Descriptive Catalogue of the Works of Thomas and John Bewick; Including cuts, in various states, for Books and Pamphlets, Private Gentlemen, Public Companies, Exhibitions, Races, Newspapers, Shop Cards, Invoice Heads, Bar Bills, Coal Certificates, Broadsides, and other miscellaneous purposes, and Wood Blocks. With an Appendix of Portraits, Autographs, Works of Pupils, etc., etc. The whole described from the Originals contained in the largest and most perfect collection ever formed, and illustrated with a hundred and twelve cuts. — London: Lovell Reeve and Co., MDCCCLXVI [1866]. — [Printed by] J. E. Taylor and Co., printers. — pp.: [i-v] vi-xxiii [xxiv], [1] 2-562. (2) Thomas Hugo. The Bewick Collector. A Supplement to a Descriptive Catalogue of the Works of Thomas and John Bewick; Consisting of additions to the various divisions of cuts, wood blocks. etc., enumerated in that work. The whole described from the Originals contained in the largest and most perfect collection ever formed, and illustrated with a hundred and eighty cuts. — London: L. Reeve and Co, MDCCCLXVIII [1868]. — [Printed by] J. E. Taylor and Co., printers. — pp.: [i-vii] viii-xxxii, [1] 2-353. Both volumes in 8vo, 22.5 x 14.5 cm, hardcover. Contemporary dark brown half morocco, gilt-ruled, with 5 raised bands, gilt titles and decoration to spine, and marbled paper over boards. Top edge gilt; marbled endpapers. Binding splitting at pp.80/81 of the 1st volume. Armorial bookplate of Ralph Hart Tweddle to front pastedown. Ralph Hart Tweddle (1843 – 1895) was a British mechanical engineer, known particularly for inventing the portable hydraulic riveter, which greatly facilitated the construction of boilers, bridges and ships.  
  • Magazine article by Edgar Jepson: The Iron Tsuba of Japan (Section: Oriental Art), published in volume Vol. 70 (September–December) of The Connoisseur: An Illustrated Magazine for Collectors, Vol. 70 (September–December); pp. 143-152 / C. Reginald Grundy [ed.] — London: Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, 1924. Owner's half black morocco, gilt lettering to spine, blue cloth boards. Two volumes bound together without original covers. Size 28.5 x 22 cm. Vol. 1: The Connoisseur | An Illustrated Magazine | For Collectors | Edited by C. Reginald Grundy | Vol. LXIX. | (MAY—AUGUST, 1924) | LONDON | Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the | Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, | at 1, Duke Street, St. James's, S.W. 1 | 1924 || Pp.: [i-ii] iii-xviii [xix] [1, 2 - plate] 3-249 [250]. Vol. 2: The Connoisseur | An Illustrated Magazine | For Collectors | Edited by C. Reginald Grundy | Vol. LXX. | (SEPTEMBER—DECEMBER, 1924) | LONDON | Published by the Proprietor, W. CLAUSE JOHNSON, at the | Editorial and Advertisement Offices of The Connoisseur, | at 1, Duke Street, St. James's, S.W. 1 | 1924 || Pp.: [i-ii] iii-xxii [2 blanks] [1, 2 - plate] 3-261 [262]. The Iron Tsuba of Japan by Edgar Jepson The heart of Japan was in the sword. However admirable may be the paintings, the prints, the netsuke, the lacquer, or the bronzes of the Japanese masters, the supreme artistic achievements of Japan were the blades of Masamune, Muramasa, Sadamune, and Rai Kunitsugu. But not a little of the heart of Japan went also in the tsuba, the guard which protected the hand that wielded the blade, into the iron tsuba of the fighting Samurai. Beside the forgers of the iron tsuba of Japan the ironsmiths of the rest of the world have been mere children. The earliest tsuba were of bronze or copper, often gilded. It is probable that they were replaced by iron tsuba during the Kamakura period, the great fighting era, which lasted from A.D. 1185 to 1333. During the later half of the twelfth century leather tsuba, strengthened by thin iron plates or a metal rim, also replaced the bronze and copper tsuba. It was at this time that a family of armourers of the name of Masuda, and in particular Masuda Munesuke, the founder of the Myochin family, began to forge iron tsuba — thin, round plates of great hardness and density. But it is probable that no tsuba perforated with a view to decorative effects were forged before the end of the fourteenth century. These fourteenth-century tsuba are exceedingly rare in England. I have seen none in the museums, none in the famous collections that have been sold during the last ten years. Those photographed in Herr Oeder's book might easily be the fifteenth century. No. 1 is a curious cup-shape tsuba decorated with a bronze and copper inlay. No. 2, with its edges curiously twisted in the forging, looks like Myochin work. But it is not of the Myochin iron. The Myochin family produced some of the greatest ironsmiths of Japan. Armourers first of all, tsubasmiths, forgers of sake-kettles, articulated reptiles, crustacea, and insects — everything that can be done with iron they did; they pushed their medium to its limit. They were forging iron tsuba in 1160, and they were still forging them in 1860. And it was their own iron, or rather their own steel. They discovered the secret of it early, and they kept that secret in the family for all those hundreds of years. There is no mistaking a Myochin tsuba: balance it on your finger and tap it with a piece of metal, always it gives forth a clear bell-like ring that you get from the work of no other ironsmith, Japanese or European. Always the Myochin tsuba is before everything a protection to the hand of the swordsman; to that everything is, as it should be, subordinated. No. 3 is a Myochin tsuba of the fifteenth century, and probably of the early fifteenth century. No. 4, by Myochin Munetaka, perforated with a grotesque figure, is an example of that twisting and twisting of the iron in the forging till it forms a pattern like the grain of wood. The Myochin smiths invented these wood-grain tsuba, and no other smiths equalled them in their forging. In the sixteenth century, the fighting tsuba was probably at its best. It was a century of great tsubasmiths. Then the first Nobuiye, whose tsuba fetched £100 apiece, circa 1800, in Japan, and the first Kaneiye flourished. No. 5 is a tsuba forged by a great smith, Iyesada of Sotome, in the manner of Nobuiye I, decorated with the karakusa tendrils that Nobuiye delighted in, with lightning and clouds. No. 6 is a guard of Sanada Tembo, the chief smith of the Tembo family, stamped, punning fashion, with the character Tembo. Akin to the Tembo tsuba were those of the Kiami and Hoan smiths. Then also the Heianjo smiths and the Owari smiths, especially those of Nagoya and the Yamakichi family, forged their strongest tsuba. Those of the Yamakichi were tested after the forging by being pounded in iron mortars — at least, so the legend runs. But they were a sternly utilitarian family, and I have never seen a Yamakichi tsuba of any beauty. In the later half of the fifteenth century arose the fashion of decorating tsuba with an inlay, zogan, of bronze. The Heianjo tsuba, forged at Kyoto in the latter half of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth century, were often thus inlaid. The earliest of them were called "Onin", of which No. 7 is an example. In addition to the bronze inlay around the edge, it is inlaid with a representation, some say, of snow; others say, of the duckweed on a pond. No. 8 is probably a Heianjo tsuba, but I am not quite sure about it. The inlaid acacia branches might be very early Shoami work. But to judge by the iron, it is a fifteenth-century tsuba; and the authorities place the beginning of the Shoami school not later than early in the sixteenth century. No. 10 is an example of the Fushimi-zogan, a flat inlay of a light-coloured bronze. These tsuba took their name from the fact that they were first forged at Fushimi, in Yamashiro, in the sixteenth century. It is of the type known as Mon-zukashi, perforated with crests (mon) à jour. The Yoshiro-zogan tsuba were also first forged at Fushimi by Yoshiro Naomasa. They were distinguished from the Fushimi-zogan by the fact that their inlay was generally a little raised-not always-for the inlay of No. 9, a tsuba forged by a later nineteenth-century Yoshiro, is quite flat. It is an interesting tsuba, for, with its decoration grown florid and excessive, it marks the intermediate stage between the simple and delightful designs of the genuine fighting tsuba and the elaborate pictures in gold and silver on the tsuba of the eighteenth-century smiths of Awa and Kyoto, which have become mere ornaments of the goldsmith. The Gomoku-zogan (No. 11) tsuba were probably first forged earlier than the Fushimi and Yoshiro-zogan tsuba. This inlay, in slight relief, is a representation in a light-coloured bronze and copper of twigs caught in the eddies of streams. The seventeenth century and early eighteenth century were the great periods of perforated tsuba. The designs, and they are often admirable, are for the most part in plain fretwork; but they are also chased. No. 12, a crane under an acacia, is a tsuba of a Higo smith, great forgers of fighting tsuba during this period. These smiths also excelled in nunome zogan, a very thin gold and silver inlay, with which they further decorated their perforated guards. The smiths of the Umetada and Shoami families also forged iron tsuba during this period; but their designs, though sometimes pleasing enough, are rarely fine. The best work of Myoju Umetada is in sentoku, not iron. The Choshu smiths, coming later, surpass the perforated guards of both the Umetada and Shoami smiths in beauty of design. No. 13, a lotus in the round, not only fretwork, but also engraved, is a good example of the admirable balance they so often attained in their designs. It is a sufficiently realistic lotus, but yet of a delightful simplicity. In considerable contrast is No. 14, the dragon by Soheishi Soten — one of the only two authentic tsuba of his forging known — the first forger of hikone-bori tsuba, which were in extraordinary favour in Japan during the eighteenth century, and illustrated every important event in Japanese history. It is on the elaborate side, but fine, strong work, and an excellent guard to the hand, for the lighter and more open part, which gives the design its admirable balance, is on the inside, and not exposed to the full swing of an opponent's blade. A few years ago there was a tendency to decry the Namban tsuba as having sprung too directly from foreign sources. But though the original suggestion may have been Chinese, or, as some say, Portuguese, the Japanese made it entirely their own, as characteristically Japanese as anything can well be, but, it must be admitted, of a decadent period. The school took its rise at the beginning of the seventeenth century, and the early tsuba were forged of a specially hard iron, the Wootz, imported from Southern India. No. 15, the signs of the Zodiac, is an excellent tsuba from the fighting point of view. Both it and No. 16 are of quite charming, if elaborate, design, and both of them, with their delicate scroll-work, so astonishingly undercut, are the very last word in the work of the ironsmith-veritable iron lace. To return to the simpler perforated tsuba, the smiths of Akasaka, a suburb of Tokyo, produced probably the most charming designs. Their style derives considerably from the Higo smiths, and their earlier fighting tsuba are very like the Higo tsuba. But always their work was just a little lighter than that of the Higo smiths, and in the end they moved right away from them and became the forgers of very light guards indeed. No. 17, is a representation of the Hiyokudori, the fabulous double bird, in which were reincarnated the souls of the two lovers, Gompachi and Komurasaki; and No. 18, “the tsuba of a hundred ducks "— there are about forty — are characteristic designs of the school. In the work of the Akasaka smiths the balance, which makes the design of a good tsuba so admirable and delightful, attains its height. This admirable balance seems often to be obtained by a deliberate sacrifice of symmetry. About nine hundred and ninety-nine European ironsmiths out of a thousand would have made the right and left sides of the Hiyoku-dori line by line, and perforation by perforation, exactly alike; he would have cut out exactly as many ducks on the one side of “the tsuba of a hundred ducks” as on the other, and made each duck on the right side correspond exactly in position and attitude with a duck on the left side. By variations the tsubasmith attained a finer balance, almost a higher symmetry. No. 19, often called by collectors the "rose-window" tsuba, but really a stylised chrysanthemum, is a favourite design of the Akasaka smiths, but Hizen work and inlaid in the Hizen manner with gold nunome. No. 20 is a Satsuma tsuba of the middle period. The Satsuma smiths of the nineteenth century produced probably the most ornate of all the iron guards, for the most part calibashes and beans with their leaves and tendrils realistic in the extreme, but of charming design. Few crafts have been carried further than that of the tsubasmith; few crafts working in a difficult medium have handled more subjects with greater feeling for beauty or greater liveliness of fancy. It is interesting to note again and again how school influences school, and smith influences smith. But, as in all the applied arts, the finest tsuba were forged by men who never lost sight of the purpose of a tsuba, that it is before everything a protection to the hand, and never subjected that purpose to a passion for virtuosity. Illustrations: No 1. FOURTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA, WITH BRONZE AND COPPER INLAY No. 2. FOURTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA, RESEMBLING MYOCHIN WORK No. 3. MYOCHIN TSUBA, FIFTEENTH CENTURY No. 4. MYOCHIN TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY No. 5. SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA No. 6. SIXTEENTH-CENTURY TSUBA BY IYESADA OF SOTOME BY SANADA TEMBO No. 7. ONIN TSUBA No. 8. HEIANJO (?) TSUBA No. 9. YOSHIRO TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY No. 10. FUSHIMI-ZOGAN, NINETEENTH CENTURY No. 11.- GOMOKU-ZOGAN, SIXTEENTH CENTURY No. 12. HIGO TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY No. 13. CHOSHU TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY No. 14. SOTEN TSUBA, SEVENTEENTH CENTURY No. 15. NAMBAN TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY No. 16. NAMBAN TSUBA, NINETEENTH CENTURY Nos. 17. AND 18. AKASAKA TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY No. 19. HIZEN TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY No. 20. SATSUMA TSUBA, EIGHTEENTH CENTURY    
  • Title: AN ESSAY | Towards a | REAL CHARACTER, | And a | PHILOSOPHICAL | LANGUAGE. | By John Wilkins D.D. Dean of Ripon, | And Fellow of the ROYAL SOCIETY. |—| [armorial device] |—| LONDON, | Printed for Sa: Gellibrand, and for | JOHN MARTYN Printer to the ROYAL | SOCIETY, 1668. Pagination: [2] blank/order, [2] t.p./blank, [16], 1-454; + 79 leaves of Dictionary, unpaginated (158 pages); Illustrations: folding plates before pp. 167, 187, and two folding plates before p. 443. Collation: π2 a-d2 B-Z4 Aa-Zz4 Aaa-Lll4 Mmm3 aaa4 Aaa-Sss4 ttt3 Size: 4to, 32 x 20 x 5 cm; Binding: Full speckled calf, later polished calf spine with raised bands, double fillet ruled gilt compartments, crimson label with gilt lettering, margins sprinkled red. The work of John Wilkins is dedicated to the problem of the universal language. Wilkins was the Dean of Ripon from 1663 to 1672 and one of the founders of the Royal Society.  
  • Title: LES BEAUX LIVRES | — | LE SOPHA | de | CRÉBILLON FILS |{vignette}| ILLUSTRATIONS DE CARLÈGLE | — | Éditions Mornay | au 8 de la rue de l’Arrivée, Paris | 1933 || Series: Les beaux livres Binding: Original pictorial wrappers, margins untrimmed, uncut; printed on BFK Rives paper (watermark); the number of copy blacked out. Justification of the print run on p. [329].Pagination: [1-8] 9-326 [327-331], ill., woodcuts in text. Size: 20.2 x 15.5 cm
  • Title: GIACOMO CASANOVA | Chevalier de Seingalt | HISTORY OF MY LIFE | FIRST TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH IN ACCORDANCE | WITH THE ORIGINAL FRENCH MANUSCRIPT | By Willard R. Trask | With an Introduction by the Translator | VOLUMES 1 AND 2 | A Helen and Kurt Wolff book • Harcourt, Brace & World, 1966 | NEW YORK || Stated 1st edition. Pagination: [2 blank] [i-iv] v-viii, [1, 2] 3-330 [8 blanks] + 32 ills. Two volumes in one.
  • A suite of 12 etchings 160 x 118 mm each, in the first state, pasted on paper, 2 per sheet, with a cover (250 x 210 mm).
    0. Cover. Les femmes de Paris pendant le siège./R.Martial/1871.
    1. Lorsqu'à l'approche de l'ennemi on demandait l'éloignement des bouches inutiles [...] 2. L'Ennemi ! 3. No inscription 4. Quête pour les veuves. 5. Concert et quête pour les enfants blessés, malades, infirmes. 6. Au bastion/Et celles non moins précieuses qui dirigeaient ces ventes [...] 7. Vente pour les orphelins de la guerre. 8. No inscription 9. Une ration, bouillie romaine et Vin/Cantine municipale[...] 10. No inscription 11. No inscription 12. Les effets de cette union patriotique des femmes sont connus.[...]
  • Hardcover, green publisher's paper boards, gilt lettering in the figural frame, black label with gilt lettering and gilt in compartments to spine. 21 x 13.5 cm, print run 2,500. pp.: [4] 5-714 [715/6] [4]. Title: ТОРКВАТО ТАССО | Освобожденный | Иерусалим | Перевод с итальянского | В. С. ЛИХАЧЕВА | Подготовка текста, предисловие, комментарии | А. О. ДЁМИНА | {publisher's device} | Санкт-Петербург | «НАУКА» | 2007 || ISBN 978-5-02-026954-5 Original: Torquato Tasso. La Gierusalemme Liberata.
  • Title: AN ESSAY | ON THE | PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION; | OR, | A VIEW OF ITS PAST AND PRESENT EFFECTS | ON | HUMAN HAPPINESS; | WITH | AN INQUIRY INTO OUR PROSPECTS RESPECTING THE FUTURE | REMOVAL OR MITIGATION OF THE EVILS WHICH | IT OCCASIONS | BY T. R. MALTHUS, A. M. | Late Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and Professor of History and Political Economy in the East-India College, Hertfordshire. | IN THREE VOLUMES. | VOL. I. [or II. or III.] | THE FIFTH EDITION, | WITH IMPORTANT ADDITIONS. | LONDON: | JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE-STREET. | 1817. || Pagination and collation: Vol. 1: ffl, [i, ii] – t. p. / imprint., [iii] iv-xvi, [1] 2-496, bfl; A-Z8 2A-2I8. Vol. 2: ffl, [i, ii] – t. p. / imprint., [iii]-iv – contents, [1]-2-507 [508], bfl; [A]2 B-Z8 2A-2I8 2K6. Vol. 3: ffl, [i, ii] – t. p. / imprint., [iii]-iv – contents, [1]-2-500, bfl; [A]2 B-Z8 2A-2I8 2K2. Binding: Three volumes printed on wove paper, uniformly bound in quarter brown polished calf, blind-ruled, black label, ruled and lettered in gilt to spine, green buckram boards; 22.2 x 13.5 cm. Edition: 5th edition, corrected with a new preface, an updated appendix of Malthus’ responses to his critics, and addition of several chapters to the whole: on France, England, and on the poor laws. Lifetime edition. Ref.: Einaudi 3670; Goldsmiths’ 21761; Kress B.6974; Mattioli 2210. Printed by W. Clowes: William Clowes Ltd. (London). Clowes, William (British, 1779 – 1847). Malthus, Thomas Robert (British, 1766 – 1834). Murray, John (British, 1737 – 1793) Murray, John II (British, 1778 – 1843) John Murray (publishing house)
  • Title page: ЖОРЖ-ЖАК ДАНТОН | ИЗБРАННЫЕ РЕЧИ | РЕДАКЦИЯ, ВВЕДЕНИЕ И ПРИМЕЧАНИЯ | Проф. Н. С. ГОЛЬДИНА | {publisher’s device} | ГОСУДАРСТВЕННОЕ ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО УКРАИНЫ | 1924 Lacking wrappers, [2] – blank / frontispiece portrait of Danton, [2] t.p., / imprint, v-xviii, [2] –f.t / blank, 1-111 [112], collation: π2 *8 1-78. Danton, Georges Jacques [Дантон, Жорж Жак] (French, 1759 – 1794). Гольдин, Николай Сергеевич (Ukrainian-Jewish, 1877 – after 1924). Translator unknown.
  • Title: МИХАИЛ ПСЕЛЛ | ХРОНОГРАФИЯ |Перевод, статья и примечания | Я. Н. Любарского | КРАТКАЯ ИСТОРИЯ | Перевод | Д. А. Черноглазова и Д. Р. Абдрахмановой | «АЛЕТЕЙЯ» | Санкт-Петербург | 2003 || Series: Византийская библиотека. Источники. Pagination: [1-8] 9-396 [4], frontis. Binding: 21.5 x 15 cm; hardcover, crimson buckram, gilt lettering in the border, gilt serial device on black, map endpapers. Print run: 1,000 copies. ISBN: 5-89329-594-3. Михаи́л Пселл [Μιχαήλ Ψελλός; Michael Psellos] (Byzantine, 1018 – c. 1078). Любарский, Яков Николаевич (Russian, 1929 – 2003).
  • Title: Государственный Эрмитаж | LIVRE DARTISTE | ВЫСТАВКА КНИГ | ИЗ СОБРАНИЯ | МАРКА БАШМАКОВА | КАТАЛОГ | Санкт-Петербург | Издательство Государственного Эрмитажа | 2013 || Frontispiece: The State Hermitage Museum | LIVRE D’ARTISTE | AN EXHIBITION | OF BOOKS FROM | THE COLLECTION | OF MARK BASHMAKOV | CATALOGUE | St. Petersburg | The State Hermitage Publishers | 2013 || Pagination: [1-5] 6-319 [320]. Binding: pictorial over cardboard, black and red lettering to cover, white lettering to spine. Size: 31 x 23 cm.
  • Erasmus. The praise of folly / Translated by White Kennett. — London: Stephen Austen, 1726. Title page in black and red: MORIÆ ENCOMIUM: | OR, THE | PRAISE | OF | FOLLY. |—| Written in Latin by | ERASMUS. |—| Translated into English by | WHITE KENNETT, | Lord Bishop of Peterborough; | With a PREFACE by his Lordship. |—| Adorn’d with | A great Number of COPPER PLATES | neatly engraven: To which is added, the Effigies of | ERASMUS, and Sir THOMAS MORE, from | theDesigns of the celebrated HANS HOLBEINE. |—| (in gothic letters) The Fourth Edition. |—| LONDON: | Printed for Stephen Austen, at the Angel in | St. Pauls’ Church-yard. 1726. || Pagination: modern endpapers and flyleaves, [2] – blank / frontis. (engraved portrait of Erasmus, [2] – t.p. in black and red with George Cruikshank’s signature in the bottom, dated 1876 / blank, [14] – to the reader, i-xiv – commendatory verses, [2] – John Wilford advert., folding portrait of Thomas More, i-v, [vi] - epistle, 1-168 – panegyrick, [4] – index.; 46 copper-engraved illustrations after Hans Holbein the Younger; pp. 17-20 detached. Collation: 12mo; π2 A6, a-b6, B-P6 Q2 (B3 unsigned), 13 in-text engravings + 26 plates + 7 folding plates; total 106 leaves and 33 plates, extraneous to collation. Edition: 4th, thus. Binding: 16.5 x 10.5 cm; rebacked with a modern spine, modern endpapers and flyleaves, contemporary boards sprinkled and tooled in a style of Cambridge panel. Provenance: Cruikshank, George (British, 1792 – 1878) [1876]; Stephen Whitehead (Oakland, CA) [2021]. Catalogue raisonné: J. Lewine (1898) p. 171 — 1st edition thus of 1709, in-8vo, with portrait and 46 plates after Holbein. Contributors: Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (Dutch, c. 1469 – 1536) – author of the original text in Latin.

    White Kennett (British, 1660 – 1728) – translator from Latin into English.

    Hans Holbein the Younger (German, 1497/8 – 1543) – artist.

    Stephen Austen (fl. c. 1727 – 1746) – publisher. Linked items: Engraved portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam in an octagonal frame, 1757 by Flipart after Holbein.

    Эразм Роттердамский. Похвальное слово глупости. — М.-Л.: Academia, 1932.

  • Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Kunisada ga [国貞画] in a yellow double-gourd cartouche. Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburo [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. c. 1845 – 1847). Date aratame seal: Bunsei 13 – Tenpō 1 (1830). Actor: Nakamura Utaemon IV [中村歌右衛門] (Japanese, 1796 – 1852); other names: Nakamura Shikan II [二代目中村芝翫], Nakamura Tsurusuke I, Nakamura Tōtarō. Play:  Yoshitsune’s Letter at Koshigoe [義経腰越状] (Yoshitsune Koshigoe-jo). Uncut fan print (uchiwa-e, 団 扇 絵), 229 x 267 mm, depicting kabuki actor Nakamura Shikan [中村芝翫] as Gotobei [五斗兵衛]. Nakamura Utaemon IV held the name of Nakamura Shikan II from the 11th lunar month of 1825 to the 1st lunar month of 1836. He was born as Hirano Kichitarō in Edo in 1796. Another fan print with the same subject in this collection [SVJP-0344.2021]: "...The play Yoshitsune Koshigoe-jo was originally written for the puppet theatre (Bunraku) and staged for the first time in the 7th lunar month of 1754 in Ôsaka at the Toyotakeza. It was a revision of two early plays, Namiki Sōsuke's Nanbantetsu Gotō no Menuki (1735) and Yoshitsune Shin Fukumijō (1744). The title, which suggested that the play focused on Minamoto no Yoshitsune, was in fact dealing with the siege of the Ōsaka Castle, led by Tokugawa Ieyasu to destroy the Toyotomi clan in 1614 and 1615. This play was quickly forbidden because of the 4th act in which Gotobei's wife fired a gun at Yoritomo (this was of course interpreted as an attack on the Shogunate). Yoshitsune Koshigoe-jo was revised in 1770 by Toyotake Ōritsu, who completely rewrote the 4th act for a puppet production at the Kitahorieza in Ōsaka". Yoshitsune Koshigoe-jo was staged for the first time in Edo, at the Ichimuraza on the 9th lunar month of 1790, and is still performed. Gotobei [五斗兵衛] (Gotohei or Gotobē), one of Yoshitsune’s loyal retainers, is forced to choose between his son’s life or his loyalty to Yoshitsune. Nishikidō brothers, who do not want Gotobei to become Yoshitsune's chief strategist, forced him to drink sake and get asleep. To prove Gotobei's military abilities, Izumi no Saburō fires a gun next to Gotobei's ear, and "he jumps up immediately, in full possession of his senses, ready to repulse any enemy". See: [LIB-1193.2013] Samuel L. Leiter. Kabuki Encyclopedia: An English-language adaptation of Kabuki Jiten. — Westport, CT; London: Greenwood Press, 1979; pp. 266-7). Ref:  [LIB-2993.2022] Fig. 24 in Israel Goldman. Japanese prints and paintings / 40th anniversary; Catalogue 27, 2021. Two more Kunisada's fan prints (in Paul Griffith's collection), depicting the same actor Nakamura Shikan II as Toneri Matsuōmaru [舎人松王丸] were published in 1832 by Iseya Ichiemon. The play was Sugawara's Secrets of Calligraphy [菅原伝授手習鑑] (Sugawara Denju Tenarai Kagami). See: [LIB-1212.2017] Robert Schaap. Kunisada: Imaging, drama and beauty / Introduction by Sebastian Izzard, contributions by Paul Griffith and Henk. J. Herwig. — Leiden: Hotei Publishing, ©2016.
  • Title page: Sheila Cousins | TO BEG | I AM ASHAMED | {publisher’s device} | THE OBELISK PRESS | 16, PLACE VENDOME | PARIS || Pagination: [2] – blanks (in wrapper), [4] – h.t. / blank, t.p. / publisher's note (to first impression) & copyright, [1] 2-270, [4] uncut (in wrapper) with imprint "Imprimerie Frère Tourcoing", total 280 pages. Collation: 8vo; [A]8 B-Q8 R4 S8; total 140 leaves. Binding: Publisher’s yellow wrappers, lettering to spine:| TO BEG | I AM | ASHAMED |—| SHEILA | COUSINS | 8th | IMPRESSION | {publisher’s device} |  THE | OBELISK PRESS | PARIS ||; lettered front wrapper in red and black: To beg | I am ashamed |—| by | Sheila Cousins |—| The autobiography | of a London prostitute | Only authorized edition | Complete and unexpurgated | {publisher’s device} | THE OBELISK PRESS ||, publisher’s device in red to back wrapper; margins untrimmed; in an owner slipcase. Edition: 1st edition, 8th impression, France, (in or after August 1838). Size: 19 x 14.5 cm. Contributors: Graham Greene (British, 1904 – 1991) – author. Ronald Matthews (British, 1903 – 1967) – author. The Obelisk Press (Paris) – publisher. Imprimerie Frère Tourcoing – printer. Compare to the presumably 1st impression of the same edition [LIB-2806.2021].
  • Title: ABC | FOR | BOOK-COLLECTORS | BY | JOHN CARTER | {publisher’s device} | RUPERT HART-DAVIS | SOHO SQUARE LONDON | 1952 | [TITLE-PAGE] || Pagination: [1-6] 7-191 [192 advert.], total number of pages 192. Collation: 8vo; [A]8 B-M8, total number of leaves 96. Binding: 21 x 13.5 cm, aubergine cloth, gilt lettering to spine, pictorial endpapers; cream unclipped (15s. net) dust-jacket with the sea-green panel in a border, with a fleuron frame, black and cream lettering, and publisher’s device to front; lettering to spine and back; folded prospectus insert loose. Edition: 1st. Contributors: Carter, John Waynflete (British, 1905 – 1975) – author Hart-Davis, Sir Rupert Charles (British, 1907 – 1999); Rupert Hart-Davis Ltd. (London) – publisher. Hazell, Watson and Viney, Ltd. – printer.
  • Title page: JOHN LANDWEHR | ROMEYN DE HOOGHE | (1645-1708) | AS BOOK ILLUSTRATOR | A BIBLIOGRAPHY | {space} | 1970 | AMSTERDAM: VANGENDT & CO | NEW YORK: ABNER SCHRAM || Pagination: [1-6] 7-247 [248 blank], ils. Content:109 entries, concordance table and 12 pp. of indices. Binding: 27.3 x 19.7 cm, green cloth, silver lettering to spine, pictorial dust jacket. ISBN: 90 6300 467 2. Contributors: Romeyn de Hooghe (Dutch, 1645 – 1708) John Landwehr – author.

    Van Gendt & Co. (Amsterdam) – publisher.

    Abner Schram Ltd. (NY) – publisher.    
  • Title-page (in red and black, with tall “s”): LES | AVANTURES | DE | TELEMAQUE, | FILS D'ULYSSE, | Par seu Messire | François de Salignac, | De La Motte-Fenelon, | Precepteur de Messeigneurs les Enfans de | France, & depuis Archevêque-Duc de | Cambray, Prince du Saint Empire. | NOUVELLE EDITION, | CONFORME AU MANUSCRIT ORIGINAL, ET | ENRICHIE DE FIGURES. | {device} | A AMSTERDAM, | Chez D. J. CHANGUION. | MDCCXXV. || Pagination: fep, 1 bank leaves, frontis., [ii] title, [iii] iv-cvi, [1] 2-490 2 blank leaves, fep, total 496 pages. Collation: 12mo; 1*-4*12 5*5, A-V12 X8 (total 248 leaves) plus frontispiece and 9 plates designed and engraved by Simon Fokke (signed: “S. Fokke in et fec 1753”), and folding map (not signed). Binding: Red quarter roan over contemporary marbled vellum, only top margin trimmed. Edition: 2nd edition with these etchings after the 1st by Jan Daniel Beman in Rotterdam in 1755 (see British Museum 1887,0722.88 and 1887,0722.90 and others.) Catalogue raisonné: Not in Cohen-DeRicci, not in Lewine. Contributors: François Fénelon [François de Salignac de la Mothe-Fénelon]  (French, 1651 – 1715) – author. Simon Fokke (Dutch, 1712 – 1784) – artist, engarver.  
  • Soft-ground etching on laid paper. Inscribed on plate: "Le dessous de cartes d'une partie de whist" [The underside of a game of whist]. Owner's stamp 'LvM' on verso.

    Dimensions: Paper: 26 x 20 cm; Image: 24 x 17.7 cm.

    Catalogue raisonné: Arthur Hubschmid (1977): 43; Graphics irreverent and erotic (1968): 273.

  • EASTERN DIVISION | OF | PARIS. | The Arrondissements are defined by colour | and numbered. || London, Edward Stanford 6 Charing Cross. | Published under the Superintendence of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. || Dimensions: Sheet: 43.5 x 35.5 cm; Image: 39.5 x 30 cm. Contributors: Edward Stanford (British, 1827 – 1904) – cartographer, engraver, publisher. Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge (SDUK) (British firm, 1826 – 1846).
  • Front wrapper (black and crimson): LES ARTISTES | DU LIVRE | SYLVAIN | SAUVAGE | {device} | HENRY BABOU | ÉDITEUR A PARIS || Title-page: LES ARTISTES DU LIVRE | SYLVAIN | SAUVAGE | ÉTUDE PAR | MARCEL VALOTAIRE | LETTRE-PRÉFACE PAR | ÉMILE HENRIOT | PORTRAIT PAR | E. DUFOUR | {fleuron} | HENRY BABOU, ÉDITEUR | 1, RUE VERNIQUET, PARIS | 1929 || Description: 26.5 x 21 cm, French flapped tan wrappers with black and crimson lettering, lettering to spine, unbound; [2] 1st blank, [2] h.t./limit., [4] fac-simile a.l.s. by Émile Henriot, [2] t.p./blank, 7-43 [4], total 27 leaves of text with in-text illustrations b/w and colour, plus 10 plates: 9 plates by Sauvage and 1 collotype reproduction portrait of Sauvage by Émilien Dufour, incl. Bibliographie des ouvrages, Table des hors-texte, and Colophon. Printing: November 1929 by Durcos & Colas in Paris. Edition: the 8th edition in the series “Les artistes du livre’, published under the direction of Marcel Valotaire; print run limited to 700 copies of which 50 on Japon enriched with one original etching, 650 copies on Vélin Blanc from Johannot, and 50 “non-commercial” copies (I-L). This copy is № 167. Contributors: Sylvain Sauvage [Félix Roy] (French, 1888 – 1948) – artist. Émile Henriot (French, 1889 – 1961) – author. Émilien Dufour (French, 1894 – 1975) – artist. Maitres-imprimeurs Ducros et Colas (Paris) – printer. Henry Babou (Paris) – publisher. Marcel Valotaire (French, 1889 – 1979) – author.
  • Title: Ninth lunar month [菊月] (Kikuzuki no zu); Series: Fashionable Twelve Months (Imayo juni-kagetsu). Another version of translation: Modern Beauties of Twelve Months. Artist: Utagawa Toyokuni I [歌川豊国] (1769–1825). Pubisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, 1815 – 1869), seal: Dansendō [伊場仙]. Signed: Toyokuni ga and sealed with toshidama. Date-kiwame seal: Ushi (ox), Bunsei 5 (1822). Size: double-sheet uncut fan print ( aiban uchiwa-e), 219 x 295 mm.
  • Softcover, in pictorial wrappers, 28 x 21.6 cm, 30 entries, with colour illustrations, some folding. Catalogue of the sales exhibition on November 1-5, 2019 in NY; pagination: [1-3] 4-72 [2] [2 blank], ils. Contributor: Sebastian Izzard
  • Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. C. 1845 – 1847). Date seal: [子五] Kaei 5, 5th month (5/1852). Signed: Toyokuni ga [豊国 画] in a red toshidama cartouche. Title: Actor Bandō Takesaburō I as clerk Seijūrō [手代清十郎] (left) and Actor Ichikawa Kodanji IV as Kenkaya Gorōkichi [喧嘩屋五郎吉] (right) in the play Musume ōgi tsui no tatehiki [娘扇一対侠贔屓 (むすめおうぎついのたてひき)] performed at the Nakamura theatre [中村座], in Edo (Tokyo). The playbill for this performance can be found at MFA (Boston) # 11.28042, 11.28285, 11.28286: Actors: Bandō Takesaburō I (初代坂東竹三郎) (Japanese, 1832 – 1877); other names: Shinshi, Shinsui V, Bandō Hikosaburō V [五代目坂東彦三郎], Bandō Tsurunosuke I. Ichikawa Kodanji IV [市川小團次] (Japanese, 1812 – 1866); other names: Ichikawa Yonejūrō I, Ichikawa Yonezō III, Ichikawa Eizō.

    Similar images were then used for the series Seven flourishing plants on lanterns for summer evenings [涼調珍盛の七草] (Suzumi chōchin sakari no nanakusa) published by Ibaya Senzaburō in 1852 (Kaei 5), 6th month.

    Bandō Takesaburō I (carved by Yokokawa Takejirō): https://collections.mfa.org/objects/219360

    Actor Ichikawa Kodanji IV (carved by Nakamura Tōkichi): https://collections.mfa.org/objects/477146.

     
  • Tin-glazed earthenware footed lidded cup decorated with winged creatures and grotesque paintings, Bachus and Cupid inside. Minor losses Diameter: 16 cm; Height: 18 cm. Attributed to Deruta, Italy, c. 1600.
  • Description: Hardcover, 22.2 x 17.2 cm, in green buckram with gilt lettering to front cover and spine, pp.: [1-4] 5-638 [2], 640 pages total. Incl.: Ф.-Р. де Шатобриан. Из «гения христианства». Title-page: ЛИТЕРАТУРНЫЕ | МАНИФЕСТЫ | ЗАПАДНОЕВРОПЕЙСКИХ | РОМАНТИКОВ | Собрание текстов, | вступительная статья и общая редакция | проф. А. С. Дмитриева | Издательство Московского университета | 1980 || Contributors: Дмитриев, Александр Сергеевич (Russian, 1919 – 2001) François-René de Chateaubriand (French, 1768 – 1848)
  • Artist: Toyohara Chikanobu [豊原周延] (Japanese, 1838 – 1912) Signed: Chikanobu hitsu [周延筆] Publisher: [ 東京掘江町] Tokyo Horiemachi | [えん市製] Enshi-sei. Media: Fan print (uchiwa-e, 団扇絵), 192 x 172 mm. Possibly Iwai Kumesaburō IV [岩井粂三郎] (1856 – 1886) a.k.a. Iwai Hisajirō III [岩井久次郎] in the role of Ono no Komachi [小野乃小町] and Nakamura Shikan IV [中村芝翫] in the role of Kisen Hōshi [喜せん法師]. Play: The Six Immortal Poets in Colorful Guises [六歌仙体綵] (Rokkasen Sugata no irodori). Inscription: Left: Kisen [喜せん] | Shikan [芝翫]  Right: Komachi [小町] | Kumesaburō [粂三郎]. Actors: Iwai Kumesaburō IV [岩井粂三郎] (1856 – 1886) a.k.a. Iwai Hisajirō III [岩井久次郎]. Nakamura Shikan IV [中村芝翫] (Japanese, 1831 –  1899); other names: Nakamura Fukusuke I [中村福助], Nakamura Masanosuke I, Nakamura Komasaburō, Nakamura Tamatarō I.
  • Mikhail Uspensky, Elena Varshavskaya. The netsuke and Japanese woodblock prints from the collection of S. P. Varshavsky. Printed by demand of The Hermitage Museum. Title-page (vertical bottom to top): ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ОРДЕНА ЛЕНИНА | ЭРМИТАЖ | НЭЦКЭ | И ЯПОНСКАЯ | ГРАВЮРА | из собрания | С. П. Варшавского | КАТАЛОГ ВЫСТАВКИ | — | ЛЕНИНГРАД | “ИСКУССТВО” | ЛЕНИНГРАДСКОЕ ОТДЕЛЕНИЕ | 1983 | {vignette} || Description: Softcover, pictorial wrappers, 21.5 x 14.5 cm, pp.: [1-8] 9-42 [43-51] (b/w plates unpag.) [52] 53-76 [77-95] (b/w plates unpag.) [96] (colophon); total 96 pages plus four leaves of colour plates. Catalogue:137 entries of netsuke, 69 entries of Japanese woodblock prints. Print run: 3,000 copies. Contributors: Mikhail Uspensky [Михаил Владимирович Успенский] (Russian, 1953 – 1997) Elena Varshavsky [Елена Юрьевна Варшавская (Jewish-American, b. 1952) Vladislav Sisauri [Владислав Ираклиевич Сисаури] (Russian, b. 1944) Sergei Petrovich Varshavsky [Сергей Петрович Варшавский] (Jewish-Russian, 1906 – 1980).
  • Hardcover volume, 19 x 13 cm, collated in-12mo, bound by Henri Creuzevault (signed) in full crushed brown morocco, spine with raised bands, gilt lettering “H. DE RÉGNIER | – | LA PÉCHERESSE” and “PARIS 1920” in the bottom compartment; gilt fillet to cover margin, five gilt fillets inside, marbled endpapers, bookplate of J.-P. Dutel to flyleaf, original yellow publisher’s wrappers preserved, top edge gilt, in a marbled slipcase; printed on dense wove paper (Japon). Inset: Receipt from Librairie ancienne et modern – Georges Venot (Lyon), dated April 16, 1938. Title-page / Cover: HENRI DE RÉGNIER | DE L’ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE | – | La Pécheresse | HISTOIRE D’AMOUR | {publisher’s device} | PARIS | MERCVRE DE France | XXVI, RVE DE CONDÉ, XXVI | MCMXX || Limitation: 158 copies on Japon (№№ 1-158), 95 copies on Chine (№№ 159-253), 515 copies on Hollande (№№ 254-768), 1,650 copies on vélin pur fil de Lafuma (№№ 769-2393, and 25 copies not for sale marked A-Z. This is № 75 (on Japon), a unique copy enriched with 7 original watercolours by Serge de Solomko. Collation: 3 blank flyleaves, front wrapper, π6 (1 h.t./advert., 1 t.p./limit., 1 dedication, 3), 1-206, 212, back wrapper, spine, 3 blank flyleaves, list of illustrations pasted to recto endpaper “La Pécheresse. | 7 aquarelles de Solemko (sic.) | 57, 64, 168, 256, 289, 320, 346”, seven plates bound in as per the list. Pagination: [1-5] 6-350, ils. OCLC Number / Unique Identifier: 715077259. Contributors: Henri de Régnier (French, 1864 – 1936) – author. Auguste Gilbert de Voisins (1877 – 1939) – dedicatee. Sergueï Solomko [Сергей Сергеевич Соломко, Serge de Solomko] (Russian-French, 1867 – 1928) – artist. Henri Creuzevault (French, 1905 – 1971) – bookbinder. J.-P. Dutel description: RÉGNIER, Henri de. LA PECHERESSE. Paris, Mercure de France, 1920. In-12 (18,3 x 11,4 cm) de [1] f., 350 pp., maroquin janséniste grenat, dos à 5 nerfs, filets dorés intérieurs, tête dorée, filets dorés sur les coupes, non rogné, couverture et dos conservés, étui bordé. (Creuzevault). ÉDITION ORIGINALE. Tirage : 95 ex. sur chine. 158 ex. sur japon. 515 ex. sur hollande. UN DES 158 EXEMPLAIRES SUR JAPON. EXEMPLAIRE UNIQUE ENRICHI DE 7 AQUARELLES ORIGINALES HORS-TEXTE SIGNÉES PAR SERGE DE SOLOMKO. Sergueï Sergueïevitch Solomko « Serge de Solomko », (Saint-Petersburg, 1867- Sainte Geneviève des bois, 1928) est un illustrateur, graphiste et aquarelliste russe qui vécut en partie en France. Qualifiée d'histoire d'amour, cette œuvre d'Henri de Régnier est dédiée à Gilbert de Voisins, poète et romancier, en témoignage de fraternelle amitié. Elle est placée par son auteur sous les auspices du moraliste et critique libertin Saint-Evremond dont une citation figure en exergue du livre : « Il y a des temps où l'on pleure les plaisirs perdus, des temps où l'on pleure les péchés commis. » Et l'auteur d'incipiter comme suit : « J'ai toujours été si curieux des particularités que l'on découvre au caractère des femmes que, pas une fois, je n'ai négligé de m'instruire sur le sujet. » « (...) le point où se montre le mieux et le plus ouvertement ce que la nature les a faites, est celui de l'amour. »
  • Photographic portrait of poet Joseph Brodsky, head and shoulders, three-quarters to the right, wearing glasses. Pencil-signed on the mat: 1/45 • Mikhail Lemkhin; same inscription on the back of the print, and ink stamp ©Mikhail Lemkhin. Sitter: Joseph Brodsky [Иосиф Александрович Бродский ] (Russian-American-Jewish, 1940 – 1996). Size: mat: 40.5 x 51 cm; window: 24.5 x 35 cm; print: 27.7 x 35.4 cm.
  • 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)
  • Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi [歌川 國芳] (1798 – 1861). Kabuki actors Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII and Arashi Rikan III as sumo wrestlers Nuregami Chōgorō (L) and Hanaregoma Chōkichi (R), respectively. Signed: Ichiyûsai Kuniyoshi ga (一勇斎 國芳 画) in a double gourd-shaped cartouche with Yoshi Kiri seal. Publisher: No seal. Date seal and double nanushi censor seal: Mera & Watanabe, 1852. Media: Fan print (uchiwa-e, 団扇絵), 231 x 295 mm. Theme: Nine-act drama (11 scenes) Futatsu Chōchō Kuruwa Nikki [双蝶々曲輪日記] (A Diary of Two Butterflies in the Pleasure Quarters) written by Takeda Izumo II, Namiki Senryū I, Miyoshi Shōraku (7/1749) as puppet play Bunraku [文楽], adopted for Kabuki theatre by Arashi San'emon IV. “The sumo wrestler Nuregami Chōgorō is trying to ransom the courtesan Azuma for Yogoro, in whose debt he stands. Hiraoka Goemon, who is at odds with Yogorō and Azuma, is the patron of the amateur wrestler Hanaregoma Chōkichi. Chōgorō purposely loses to Chōkichi and then asks the latter to stop Goemon's ransoming of Azuma; Chōkichi refuses, however, and they quarrel. Admonished for his dissipation by his sister Oseki, Chōkichi is going to commit ritual suicide (seppuku) as an apology for his behavior, but Chōgorō, who happens along just then, prevents him. The two men swear blood brotherhood. […]  The confrontation between Chōgorō and Chōkichi in the Sumōba scene, acted in the exaggerated style called aragoto, is a major highlight of the work. The scene in Yohei's home, known as Hikimado, presents the unfolding of Kabuki's eternal conflict between duty and feelings, here represented by the act of opening the skylight (hikimado) to which Chōgorō is tied”. [Samuel L. Leiter. Kabuki Encyclopedia: an English-language adaptation of Kabuki Jiten. — Westport, CT; London: Greenwood Press, 1979, pp. 70-71]. See also James R. Brandon and Samuel L. Leiter. Kabuki plays on stage, vol. 1, pp. 234-258. — Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2002. Actors: Ichikawa Danjūrō VIII [市川団十郎] (Japanese, 1823 – 1854); other names: Ichikawa Ebizō VI, Ichikawa Shinnosuke II. Arashi Rikan III [嵐璃寛] (Japanese, 1812 – 1863); other names Arashi Tokusaburō III, Arashi Kicchō I, Onoe Wasaburō I. Another print in this collection with the same theme: SVJP-0331.2020. Reference images:    
  • Hardcover volume, 20.8 x 13.8 cm, bound in black buckram with gilt lettering to front cover and spine; pp.: [2] 3-112. Portrait of young Anatoly Koni to fep verso. Print run: 5,000 copies. About the right of the defence of necessity – a reprint of the first work of distinguished Russian jurist Anatoly Koni, originally published in «Приложение к Университетским известиям» in 1865 and Кони А. О правѣ необходимой обороны. Рассужденiе. - М.: В Университетской Типографiи, 1866.
  • Hardcover, 20 x 14 cm, owner’s later green buckram with the original wrapper pasted to front board: wood engraving printed in green (egg and dart border with “1925” on top and “ИЗД-ВО «БЫЛОЕ» ЛЕНИНГРАД” in the bottom, inside the border a pictorial frame, depicting chains, manacles, and axes with red and green lettering inside: “ЦАРСКАЯ РОССИЯ (framed) | РУССКИЙ | РОКАМБОЛЬ | ПРИКЛЮЧЕНИЯ | МАНАСЕВИЧА-МАНУЙЛОВА | {fleuron}”; in the bottom corners of the frame monogrammed letters “В” and “Б”, for Вениамин Белкин (Veniamin Belkin).  Pagination: [1-4] 5-239 [240]; collated 8vo: [1]-158, total 120 leaves. Title-page: — | К. Бецкий и П. Павлов | РУССКИЙ РОКАМБОЛЬ  | (ПРИКЛЮЧЕНИЯ И. Ф. МАНАСЕВИЧА-МАНУЙЛОВА) | — | ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО «БЫЛОЕ» | ЛЕНИНГРАД • 1925 || Print run: 5,000 copies. Contributors: Вениамин Павлович Белкин [Veniamin Belkin] (Russian, 1884 – 1951) – artist of the cover. К. Бецкий (pseudonym), real name Иосиф Яковлевич Кобецкий (Jewish-Russian, ? – ?) – author. П. Павлов (pseudonym),  real name Павел Елисеевич Щеголев (Russian, 1877 – 1931) – author. Иван Фёдорович Манасевич-Мануйлов [Исаак Тодресович Манасевич, Ivan Manassievitch-Manouïlov] (Jewish-Russian, 1869/71—1918) – character.  
  • 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 Publisher: Iseya Ichiemon [伊勢屋市右衛門] (Japanese, fl. c. 1820s – c. 1860s); seal Tsuji [辻] (Marks 16-029). Media: Untrimmed fan print (uchiwa-e), 225 x 295 mm, plus 10 mm paper strip glued on top (235 mm total height). Title: Plucking Popular Songs in Those Days [時世葉歌の爪弾] (Imayo ha-uta no tsuma-biki). Date seal and aratame seal: Ansei 3 (1856). Seller's Description: Uchiwa-e; picture intended for a summer fan. Here we see a relaxed beauty wearing loose layers of kimono and playing her shamisen instrument. She appears to be in the happy mood of spring, her singing inspired by the cherry blossoms in full bloom that we see outside of her window. She enjoys leisurely plucking with the plectrum of the shamisen and singing “ha-uta” (popular) songs. The title Ha-uta [葉歌] is normally written 端歌, which indicates a certain category of popular songs accompanied by shamisen with short texts that are drawn from daily life.  Here however, the title葉歌 uses phonetically the same “ha“, referring to the title of the book of a collection of ha-uta songs, Matsu no ha [松の], which was published in five volumes in 1703 by Shûshôken 秀松軒. It is said that this collection of songs was written and sung by the blind (who were often musicians by livelihood). Behind her, lying on the window sill, we see two ha-uta songbooks, one open and one closed. The last half of the title tsuma-biki [爪弾] translates “to pluck with fingers” instead of a plectrum, which is the usual way of playing the shamisen. 
  • Colour (tone) lithography, image 268 x 410 mm, sheet 317 x 470 mm; signed on bottom-left of the image “Pelikan 1905”, and pencil ms inscription: E. Pelikan to the lower-right corner of the sheet. Contributor: Emilie Mediz-Pelikan (Austrian, 1861 – 1908) – artist. Seller's description: Austrian-German painter and graphic artist. Emilie Mediz-Pelikan was born in Vöcklabruck in 1861. She studied at the Vienna Academy and followed her teacher Albert Zimmermann to Salzburg and in 1885 to Munich. In 1891 she married the painter and graphic artist Karl Mediz (1868 - 1945), with whom she lived in Vienna and from 1894 in Dresden. She was in contact with the Dachau Artists' Colony and went on study trips to Paris, Belgium, Hungary and Italy. In the Dachau artists' colony she was friends with Adolf Hölzel and Fritz von Uhde. In 1889 and 1890 she spent time in Paris and in the Belgian artists' colony Knokke. In 1898 she was represented at the first art exhibition of the Vienna Secession, and in 1901 at the International Art Exhibition in Dresden. In 1903 she and her husband had a group exhibition, at the Hagenbund in Vienna. In 1904, she showed graphic works at the Dresden royal court art dealer Richter, and in 1905 and 1906 she exhibited at the Berlin Künstlerhaus. It was not until around 1900 that she achieved her artistic breakthrough with her landscape paintings. Since the estate of the artist, who died prematurely in Dresden in 1908, was lost in the former GDR until the 1980s, it was quite late that the artist was rediscovered and revalued both in Austrian art history and on the art market. In 1986, the first major exhibitions took place at the Upper Austrian State Museum and the University of Applied Arts in Vienna, followed by numerous smaller exhibitions in private galleries in Vienna, Linz and Munich. The artist received recognition during her lifetime from numerous prominent fellow painters as well as from the art critic Ludwig Hevesi. Together with Tina Blau, Herbert Boeckl, Marie Egner, Theodor von Hörmann, Franz Jaschke, Eugen Jettel, Ludwig Heinrich Jungnickel, Rudolf Junk, Gustav Klimt, Oskar Kokoschka, Johann Victor Krämer, Heinrich Kühn, Carl Moll, Rudolf Quittner, Rudolf Ribarz, Emil Jakob Schindler, Max Suppantschitsch, Max Weiler, Olga Wisinger-Florian and Alfred Zoff, she was a protagonist of the reception of Impressionism in Austria. This style went down in Austrian art history under the term "Stimmungsimpressionismus".
  • Hand-coloured woodcut on wove paper, 472 x 365 mm; black ink stamp “5275” to reverse. Top centre: "LE PRINCE IMPÉRIAL"; right: "№143." Image in the middle: Prince Impérial, with his father, conducts a review of the children's army "REVUE DES PUPILLES DE LA GARDE". Besides – five tiers of captioned cartoons. Bottom left: "Imp. lith. de Pellerin à Épinal"; right: Propriété de l’Éditeur. Déposé." Jean Charles Pellerin (French, 1756 – 1836) – printer/publisher.  
  • Set of 10 etchings (9 in passe-partout) printed in sanguine on the mother of pearl paper (japon nacre) from the album of 12 prints titled “Jeunesse”, presented by Gérard D'Houville (pen name of Marie de Régnier, née de Heredia) and published by La Tradition in 1945. It was a limited edition of 532 copies, some coloured on Arches paper and some as these set. Plates signed by the artist in pencil below the plate mark. The album cover is missing. Complete data for the album: JEUNESSE | 12 EAUX-FORTES ORIGINALES | DE | MARIANNE CLOUZOT | PRÉSENTÉES | PAR | GÉRARD D'HOUVILLE | {publisher’s device} | LA TRADITION | 1945 || Dimensions: mat 330 x 255 mm; window 225 x 180 mm; sheet 280 x 220 mm; plate 220 x 170 mm. Contributor: Martin van Maële [Martin, Maurice François Alfred] (French, 1863 – 1926)
  • Iron tsuba of round form with design of two paper lanterns in openwork (small cut-outs, ko-sukashi ) outlined with brass wire. The plate is decorated with four concentric rows of brass dot inlay (ten-zōgan), with a brass circular wire inside the innermost row of dots (missing on the back). Hitsu-ana of rectangular form is not outlined with brass wire, which let us suppose that it was cut out at a later date. Copper sekigane. Mid Muromachi period (1454-1513). Diameter: 74.0 mm, thickness: 2.6 mm. Tsuba is illustrated at: 新版 日本刀講座 小道具鑑定編 本間 薫山 佐藤 寒山 : Shinhan Nihonto Koza, Volume VI, Kodogu Part 1. Under supervision of Honma Kunzan and Sato Kanzan. 鍔 無名 応仁 鉄地) 丸形 小透 槌目 真鍮据文 点象嵌 丸耳 : Tsuba with no signature, Ōnin style. Base metal iron (jigane), round shape, small perforations (ko-sukashi), hammering finish (tsuchime). Pre-cast brass inlay (shinchu suemon-zōgan); dot inlay (ten-zōgan); round edge (maru-mimi). English translation of the book indicated above Nihon Tō Kōza, Volume VI, Part 1 by Harry Afu Watson, AFU Research Enterprises, Inc., 1993. Tsuba in question illustrated on page 14 and described as follows: " Tsuba mumei Ōnin. Tetsu ji maru gata ko-sukashi tsuchime shitate shinchū suemon ten zogan maru mimi. Brass suemon". My question remains: why such a text is called 'translation' while it looks more like transliteration of romanization?
  • Bando Mitsugoro II as Soga no Taro Sukenobu, the step-father of the Soga brothers, and Osagawa Tsuneyo II as Onio's wife Tsukisayo, in the play 'Omonbi Kuruwa Soga' performed at the Ichimura-za in the 1st month of 1799. Reference: Harvard Art Museums accession number 1933.4.525. Publications: Narazaki Muneshige, Ukiyo-e shuka [Collection of the Masterpieces of Ukiyo-e Prints in Museums] Volume 8: Foggu Bijutsukan [Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University], Neruson Bijutsukan [Nelson Atkins Museum]..., Shogaku-kan (Tokyo, Japan, 1980 [Showa 55]), Color Plate 107; p. 104 (entry p. 191). SOLD
  • Utagawa Toyokuni (歌川豐國); 1769 – 24 February 1825. The actor Nakamura Utaemon as Ishikawa Goemon. Circa 1810. Size/Format: Oban, 9.75 by 14.5 inches
  • Iron tsuba of round form decorated with chrysanthemums, pine cones and needles, pampas grass, vines, cherry blossoms, and wild geese in brass inlay (suemon-zōgan) and pierced with designs of water clover (denjiso) and half bellflower (or karahana) to the left and to the right of nakago-ana as well as double bars above and below nakago-ana (possibly with the meaning of number 2 or ordinal 2nd). Most probably the sukashi elements here are the family crests (mon). Unsigned. Ōnin school. Muromachi period; 15th or 16th century. Height: 82.1 mm; Width: 80.9 mm; Thickness at seppa-dai: 2.4 mm NBTHK # 2003827: Tokubetsu Hozon Tosogu Kanteisho (特別保存刀装具鑑定書) - "Extraordinarily Worthy of Preservation".
  • Iron tsuba of round form inlaid with brass, copper, and shakudō wire fastened to the surface with metal staples (mukade-zōgan); Scalloped brass inlay around the rim. Early Edo, 17th century. Height: 84.8 mm; Width 84.8 mm; Thickness at seppa-dai: 3.7 mm. Weight 161.6 g. Design is thought to resemble a centipede. "Centipede-like inlay (mukade zogan) of alternating iron and brass staples produce an appearance that was particularly favored by Takeda Shingen (1521-1573), one of the most powerful warlords of his time. The centipede is sacred to Bishamon (God of War) and especially propitious for a warrior. Shingen type, 16th century.” [The Peabody Museum collection of Japanese sword guards with selected pieces of sword furniture, by John D. Hamilton. Photographs by Mark Sexton. Salem, MA, 1975.] See also: http://varshavskycollection.com/shingen-tsuba/
  • Artist: Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769–1825) Title: Actors Bando Mitsugorō, Ichikawa Danjūrō, Onoe Kikugorō in play The Maiden at Dōjō Temple. Presumably Bunka 13 (1816) at Nakamura Theater in Edo. Publisher: Mikawaya Seiemon (c. 1805-1829); Marks' "Publishers" № 328, p. 235. Size: Vertical ôban MEDIUM OR TECHNIQUE: Woodblock print (nishiki-e); ink and color on paper. Signed: Toyokuni ga Censor's seal: kiwame Detailed discussion on the topic can be seen at: The Maiden at Dōjō Temple    
  • An iron tsuba in the shape of a bold or shaved human head in full round. Unsigned. Dimensions: 62.5 x 53.4 x 4.4 mm Iron, in the shape of a Ni O (Nio) head, in full round, the back flat chased as a pine forest. Signed : Miōchin Masatsugu in sosho. №38 in The Naunton Collection, 1912. There are a few tsuba of such design known. SOLD

    №38 Naunton Collection, 1912.

    Iron, a severed head. Signed: Takeaki of Kwaiyō. Ex Hawkshaw Collection [Plate VII]. Below written: Takurio, Suruga, 1118; Tamagawa, p. ; Tanaka, p. 168; Tanetora, 1894. №2729 in The Naunton Collection, 1912.

    №2729 Naunton Collection, 1912.

    Reference to Hawkshaw Collection [Plate VII] happened to be not exact; it is Plate VIII, №236. It is clearly not the Hawkshaw piece (different facial expression, signle hitsu-ana, no plug. Description at Hawkshaw, 1910, reads: Iron, in the shape of a man's head, severed at the neck, the forehead in three wrinkles, the mouth hard-set and drooping, the eyes open, inlaid brass with shakudo pupils. Signed: Shoami; dated second year of Shoho, first month [SV: December 1644 through February 1648].

    №236 Hawkshaw Collection, 1910.

  • Iron tsuba of round form with three stylized folding fans motif  in openwork (sukashi). Kogai-hitsu-ana with shakudō sekigane. Iron bones (tekkotsu) on the rim. Momoyama period or earlier. Possibly, Ko-Shōami school.

    Size: 76.8 x 75.7 x 4.0 mm.

    [Seller alleged that the motif is "Buddhist wheel", which seems unlikely.