/Collection
  • Artist: Utagawa Kunisada [歌川 国貞] a.k.a. Utagawa Toyokuni III [三代歌川豊国] (Japanese, 1786 – 1865). Signed: Kōchō(rō) Kunisada ga (香蝶国貞画) in a red double-gourd cartouche. Publisher: Surugaya Sakujirō [駿河屋作次郎] (Japanese, fl. c. 1844 – 1865); Marks 06-005 | 501a. Single nanushi censor seal: Muramatsu (1843-6). The date is attributed to c. 1844. Title: Narihira [なり平]. Ariwara no Narihira [在原 業平] (Japanese, 825 – 880) – one of the Six Immortal Poets – The Rokkasen [六歌仙]. Series: A parody of six immortal poets  [見立六花撰] (Mitate Rokkasen). Media: Untrimmed fan print (uchiwa-e), 227 x 293 mm,  depicting a beautiful woman with a bow and arrows in her left hand. Series: Mitate Rokkasen [見立六花撰] – is sometimes interpreted as "A parody of six immortal poets" or "A comparison of six select flowers". [LIB-1212.2017] Robert Schaap. Kunisada: Imaging, drama and beauty. — Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 2016; pl. 28, p. 58. This is another fan print with another immortal poet, Bun'ya no Yasuhide [文屋 康秀] (Japanese, -d. 885?), from the same series, provided in the book:

    Robert Schaap, 2016.

    With special thanks to Horst Graebner for help with the description and date attribution: "The print can be dated to 1844: censor seal is Muramatsu (Muramatsu Genroku); he acted in 7/1844 and 4/1845 (and also later) as censor but Kunisada changed his name to Kunisada early in 1844."  
  • Description: Hardcover small 4to, 20.3 x 15.8 cm, contemporary binding, quarter carrot morocco with raised bands over marbled boards, marbled endpapers, original wrappers preserved, gilt lettering to spine. Content: Scapin Maquereau, drame en un acte par M. Albert Glatigny; La grisette et l’étudiant, pièce en un acte par M. Henry Monnier; Le bout de l’an de la noce, parodie du bout de l’an de l’amour de M. Théodore Barrière par MM. Lemercier de Neuville et J. du Boys; Un caprice par Lemercier de Neuville; Les jeux de l’amour et du bazar, comédie de mœurs en un acte par Lemercier de Neuville. Title-page: LE THÉATRE ÉROTIQUE | DE LA RUE DE LA SANTE | {vignette} | PARIS | — | 1932 || Collation: 3 blanks, original front wrapper with black lettering «LE THÉATRE ÉROTIQUE | DE LA RUE DE LA SANTE», [1]4 (2 blanks, frontis., h.t. / limitation), [2]4 (t.p., f.t.p., 2 leaves of text), 3-184 (incl. 2 blanks), original back wrapper, original spine, 3 blanks; 5 full-page illustrations within collation, 3 original watercolours extraneous to collation bound in between 11 and 12 blank leaves. Pagination: [4] [1-8] 9-135 [136] [4], ils. Limitation: 20 copies on Japon and 250 copies on Vélin, this is copy № 201. Edition: 1st edition thus, illustrated with 20 coloured photogravures, 5 of them full-page after Feodor Rojankovsky [Rojan], enriched with 3 full-page original watercolours by him. Catalogue raisonné: Dutel (1920-1970): 2498, p. 385; Nordmann/Christie’s (2) 515, p. 251 Contributors: Feodor Rojankovsky [Rojan, Фёдор Степанович Рожанковский] (Russian-American, 1891 – 1970) – artist. Joseph Albert Alexandre Glatigny (French, 1839 – 1873) – author. Henry-Bonaventure Monnier (French, 1799 – 1877) – author. Théodore Barrière (French, 1823 – 1877) – author. Louis Lemercier de Neuville [La Haudussière, Louis Lemercier] (French, 1830 – 1918) – author. Jean Charles Duboys [Du Boys] (French, 1836 – 1873) – author. Original watercolours:
  • Small iron tsuba for a dagger (tantō), of quatrefoil form (mokkō-gata), with raised rim (mimi), decorated with flat brass inlay (hira-zōgan) to form an abstract design alluding to the mushroom of immortality (reishi). Opening (hitsu-ana) to the left of nakaga-ana probably cut later and fitted with shakudo sekigane. Maker's signature on seppa-dai: Koike Naomasa (小池 直正).

    Momoyama period: End of the 16th - beginning of the 17th century. Dimensions: Height 53.7 mm; Width: 45.5 mm; Thickness at centre: 3.5 mm; at rim: 4.9 mm. Other examples of signed Koike Naomasa work in this collection: TSU-0346. Reference: The closest example in literature is in Compton Collection (II): №11 with the description: “A Koike School tsuba, Edo period (circa 1625), signed Koike Yoshiro. Sheet-brass flush inlay of cloud forms and wire inlay creating the same shape. Koike Yoshiro Naomasa worked from the Keicho to the Genna periods (1596-1623). He arrived in Kyoto from Kaga.” [Japanese Swords and Sword Fittings from the Collection of Dr. Walter Ames Compton (Part II) / Sebastian Izzard, Yoshinori Munemura. — Christie's, New York, October 22, 1992]. See: Yoshirō tsuba.    
  • Book title: Kabuki fan-prints from Edo: Genroku to Enkyō periods (1688-1748) [江戸歌舞伎団扇絵]  (Edo kabuki uchiwa-e: Genroku - Enkyō hen). Author: Shigeo Miyao [宮尾しげを] (Japanese, 1902 – 1982). Comments by: Sutezō Kimura [木村仙集] (Japanese, 20th century). Publisher: Inoue Shobō [井上書房] (Tokyo). Oblong volume bound in black washi paper with silver kabuki face design to front and silver lettering to spine and silver publisher’s name to back; three-colour title, folding frontispiece, second frontispiece, pp.: [6] foreword, contents, [2] f.t.p./blank, 3-134 [2], 43 full-page black & white illustrations, colophon slip pasted, bookstore label to back pastedown, in a pink slipcase with black lettering. Primitive fan prints from the Kaga collection, from 1691 to 1747. Edition: 1st edition, limited to 500 copies.
  • © Aurora Art Publishers: ISBN 0-8109-1406-9. Printed and bound in Finland. A pictorial album about the history and collections of The Hermitage museum in St. Petersburg during World War II. Title-page: in frame: THE ORDEAL | OF THE | THE SIEGE OF | LENINGRAD• | 1941 – 1944 | HERMITAGE; under the frame: Text by Sergei Varshavsky and Boris Rest | — | AURORA ART PUBLISHERS, LENINGRAD• | HARRY N. ABRAMS, INC., PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK || Description: Illustrated album in hardcover, 33 x 25 cm, bound in black cloth with gilt and purple lettering to spine, brown endpapers, pictorial dust jacket; pp.: [1-6] 7-270 [34], total 304 pages with b/w and colour illustrations. TextSergei Petrovich Varshavsky [Сергей Петрович Варшавский] (Jewish-Russian, 1906 – 1980); B. Rest [Б. Рест; Юлий Исаакович Шапиро] (Jewish-Russian, fl. 1940 – 1980). Preface: Boris Piotrovsky [Борис Борисович Пиотровский] (Russian, 1908 – 1990). Translated by Arthur Shkarovsky-Rafeé. Layout by Liubov Rakhmilevich. Photography by Viktor Savik and Leonid Bogdanov. A twin edition to [LIB-3043.2022] S. Varshavsky, B. Rest. Saved for humanity: the Hermitage during the siege of Leningrad, 1941-1944. — Leningrad: Aurora Art Publishers, 1985 and the Russian edition [LIB-3044.2022] C. Варшавский, Б. Рест. Подвиг Эрмитажа, 1941-1944 / Альбом. — Ленинград: Издательство «Аврора», 1987. The text extracted from [LIB-3035.2022] С. Варшавский, Б. Рест. Подвиг Эрмитажа: Государственный Эрмитаж в годы Великой отечественной войны. — М.-Л.: Советский художник, 1965.
  • Hardcover, 17.2 x 12.5 cm, brown cloth-backed pictorial paper boards, lettering to front and spine, pictorial endpapers, pp.: [1-4] 5-430 [2], total 432 pages; collated in-16mo: [1]-1216 138 1416, total 216 leaves. Print run: 65,000 copies. A real history-based fiction about doctor Nikolai Sudzilovsky [Nicholas Russel] (Belarusian, 1850 – 1930). Title-page (pictorial): АЛЕКСАНДРА | БОГДАНОВА | ЖИЗНЬ | ПОСЛЕ | СМЕРТИ | Роман || Imprint:  Рецензент доктор филилогических наук Н. Г. Жулинский. Редактор В. А. Лигостов. Богданова А. И. Жизнь после смерти: Роман. — К.: Рад. письменник, 1990. — 431 с. ISBN 5-333-00201-0. Colophon: Литературно-художественное издание. БОГДАНОВА АЛЕКСАНДРА ИВАНОВНА | Жизнь после смерти. Роман. Киев, издательство «Радяньский пысьмэннык». Author: Богданова, Александра Ивановна (b. c. 1950).
  • Photographic portrait of poet Joseph Brodsky, head and shoulder, turned slightly right, looking to the right. 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: 51 x 40.5 cm; window: 34.5 x 27 cm; print: 35 x 28 cm.
  • Single volume, 16.8 x 11.3 cm, bound in full dark olive crushed morocco by Brany (signed), gilt triple-fillet border to boards, spine with raised bands, gilt in compartments, gilt-lettered label, gilt dentelle inside, marbled endpapers, all margins gilt, gilt double fillet to boards margin; text printed on laid paper. Bookplate of Maurice Lebarbier de Tinan to fep 45 x 35 mm representing standing satyr with erected penis holding monogram ‘MT’ in his hands with a motto below on a ribbon ‘FAIRE SANS DIRE’. Maurice Lebarbier de Tinan book collection was dispersed via l’hôtel Drouot (Paris) on a sale from March 9 to 12, 1885; a catalogue was published: Catalogue d’un joli choix de livres anciens et modernes, en très belle condition de reliure, composant la bibliothèque de M. L. de T*** [Lebarbier de Tinan] (Paris, Ch. Porquet, 1885, in-8, VIII-140 p., 481 lots).  Collation: π2 (h.t., t.p.) a6 b2 1-1112, total 82 leaves plus 18 engraved plates on wove paper; illustrations include engraved frontispiece and six etchings printed in two versions each, black and red, and one etching (at p. 103) in two states, two colour versions for each state, frontispiece and 3 or 4 plates after Félicien Rops, the others after original lithographs by Devéria and Henri Grévedon or Octave Tassaert for the 1833 edition (re-print of 1926 LIB-3135.2023). Pagination: [4] [i] ii-xvi, [3] 4-141 [3], total 164 pages, ils. Title-page (red and black): GAMIANI | OU | DEUX NUITS D’EXCES | PAR | A D M | AVEC UN EPISODE DE LA VIE DE L’AUTEUR | Extrait des mémoires de la | COMTESSE DE C******** | – | « Hippolyte, cher cœur, que dis-tu ces choses ? » | Femmes damnées, Fleurs du Mal. | — | LESBOS | INSTITUTION MERY — PAVILLON BAUDELAIRE. || Catalogue raisonné: Dutel I: A-464; Bory: 596-605; Pia: 516/7. According to Pia, the print run is limited to 150 copies on laid paper. Ref.: BNF Enfer 419. Fekete (Christie's): 135. Provenance: Maurice Lebarbier de Tinan (French, 1842 – 1918). Contributors: Alfred de Musset (French, 1810 – 1857) – author. Félicien Rops (Belgian, 1833 – 1898) – artist. Auguste Poulet-Malassis (French, 1825 – 1878) – publisher. Catalogue Poulet-Malassis & ses amis description: № 5. [Alfred de MUSSET] A D M. Gamiani ou Deux nuits d’excès, avec un épisode de la vie de l’auteur, extrait des mémoires de la comtesse de C********. Lesbos, Institution Méry, Pavillon Baudelaire [A. Poulet-Malassis, 1864]. Illustré de 8 gravures, dont l’une en frontispice, en double état (et quatre états pour la gravure « au singe » de la page 103) de Félicien Rops. Là où Baudelaire soutient Poulet-Malassis quand l’éditeur soutient l’attribution à Musset. Perfectionniste ? Trop cher ? Trop sollicité ? Pas toujours inspiré ? Rops réalisera rarement des suites complètes, ne répondant le plus souvent à la demande de ses commanditaires que par la conception de frontispices. Au verso du faux-titre, Launay voit une justification de 150 exemplaires sur papier vergé, paraphés et numérotés, qui ne figure pas ici. Très bel exemplaire relié par Brany. Provenance : Bibliothèque de Lebarbier de Tinan de Lebarbier de Tinan dont la collection fut dispersée en 1885, justifié par son ex-libris représentant un satyre en érection, portant la devise “Faire sans dire”. Bibliographie : Pia 558, Per 16-8, PC 1299, Lau 285, Enfer 419, Dutel A-464." [LIB-3118.2022]
  • Artist: Utagawa Kuniyoshi [歌川 國芳] (Japanese, 1798 – 1861). Publisher: Ibaya Senzaburō [伊場屋仙三郎] (Japanese, fl. C. 1845 – 1847), seal: San [三] (Marks 11-001 | 127c). Carver: Matsushima Fusajirō [松嶋房次郎] (Japanese, fl. 1843 – 1850); seal [彫工房次郎] – Hori kō Fusajirō (Gordon Friese № 136) Signed: Chōōrō Kuniyoshi ga [朝櫻楼国芳画] in a red double gourd-shaped cartouche. Nanushi censor seal: Tanaka [田中]; V/1844 or II/1845. Media: Fan print (uchiwa-e, 団扇絵), 238 x 304 mm. Reference: Kuniyoshi Project. Series mentioned in Robert Schaap. Heroes and ghosts: Japanese prints by Kuniyoshi, 1797-1861.— Leiden: Hotei Publishing, 1998; p. 122 [LIB-1030.2016].
  • Softcover, in pictorial wrappers, 28 x 21.7 cm, 70 entries, with colour illustrations. Catalogue of the sales exhibition on March 17-24, 2023 in NY; pagination: [1-3] 4-142 [2], ils. Invitation card laid in. Contributor: Sebastian Izzard
  • Hardcover volume, 20.8 x 13.5 cm, pictorial paper backed with grey cloth, black and white lettering to spine (serial design), pp.: [1-4] 5-333 [3]; collated 8vo: 1-218; total 168 leaves plus 13 photomechanical plates. Title-page (blue and black): Евг. Брандис | МАРКО ВОВЧОК | ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО | ЦК ВЛКСМ | «МОЛОДАЯ ГВАРДИЯ» | — || Frontispiece (blue and black): ЖИЗНЬ | ЗАМЕЧАТЕЛЬНЫХ | ЛЮДЕЙ | Серия биографий | ОСНОВАНА | В 1933 ГОДУ | М. ГОРЬКИМ | ВЫПУСК 19 / 460 {torch} МОСКВА / 1968 || Print-run: 100,000 copies. Contributors: Евгений Павлович Бра́ндис (Russian, 1916 – 1985) – author. Марко Вовчок [Марія Олександрівна Вілінська, Marko Vovtchok] (Ukrainian, 1833 – 1907) – character. Борис Борисович Лобач-Жученко (Russian, 1899 – 1995) – dedicatee.
  • Owner’s quarter brown cloth, 18.2 x 12.5 cm, lettered paper over cardboard; text printed on tan paper, [1, 2] (t.p.), [i] ii-viii (intro.), [1] 4-48 (text); total 28 leaves; blue and red crayon marks to text; boards and pages with blue ink stamps and inscriptions. Front board: Педагогичне Бюро Полтавського Губернського Земства. | ТВОРИ РІДНИХ ПИСЬМЕННИКІВ ДЛЯ | ЧИТАННЯ В КЛАСІ.| МАРКО ВОВЧОК. | КАРМЕЛЮК. | ПОЛТАВА. | 1917 р. || Back board: Серія складається з творів: | Квітки, Вовчка, Шевченка, Куліша, | Руданського, Левицького І, Мирного, | Франка, Грінченка, Коцюбинського. | Полтава, друкарня Амчиславського. || Title-page: Педагогичне Бюро Полтавського Губернського Земства. | МАРКО ВОВЧОК. | КАРМЕЛЮК. | ПОЛТАВА. | 1917 р. || Contributors: Марко Вовчок [Marko Vovchok; Марія Олександрівна Вілінська] (Ukrainian, 1833 – 1907) – author. Other variants: Markowovzok and Marko Vovtchok. Амчиславский, М. Г. (Полтава, ул. Пушкина, 40) – printer.  
  • Offset lithography in back ink on paper, 448 x 448 mm, description by OMCA COLLECTIONS (Oakland Museum of California): The top edge of the poster has a stylized drawing of an eagle. Below, the poster has a drawing with eight male police officers and two female figures: one with the crown and torch of the Statue of Liberty, the other holding scales and wearing a blindfold in the style of personifications of justice. In the foreground of the drawing, one of the police officers is holding the liberty figure on the ground and raping her while a second officer holds one of her legs. In the background, the justice figure is being held up and raped by two officers. The rest of the police officers look at this scene and laugh or pat one another on the back. The bottom of the drawing is bordered by a semicircle of text that reads: "...WITH LIBERTY AND JUSTICE FOR ALL." [...] This provocative poster was described at a 1968 House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) hearing as "one of the most vile, obscene pieces of literature that I have seen disseminated in San Francisco" by San Francisco Examiner reporter Edward S. Montgomery. Contributors: Frank Cieciorka (American, 1939 – 2008) – artist.
  • 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)  
  • Owner’s hardcover, 182 x 120 mm, yellow buckram, crimson morocco label to spine with gilt lettering; publisher’s pink wrappers preserved, round engraved bookplate to front pastedown “DE LA BIBLIOTHÈQUE DE JULES RICHARD” cut to the border (“Imp. r. C. Motteroz” cut out); Pp.: [4] [1-5] 6-83 [84], various mss and printed clippings, 2 extra ffls to front and back. Title-page: 1871-1873 | — | GORGES VEYSSET | — |  UN ÉPISODE DE LA COMMUNE | ET DU | GOUVERNEMENT DE M. THIERS | PAR | Mme DE FORSANS-YEYSSET | — | BRUXELLES | LANDSBERGER & C°, LIBRAIRES ÉDITEURS | 2, RUE DE NAMUR, 2 | 1873 || Provenance: Jules Richard (French, 1848 – 1930). Ref: BNF.
  • Жуковский Ю. Г. Политические и общественные теории XVI-го века. - С.Петербург, 1866. Типография А. Головачева. // Материалы для общественной науки. - 163 с.

    Схоластика.

    Макиавелли и Томас Мор.

    Реформация: Лютер, Кальвин, анабаптисты.

    Жан Боден.

     [Штамп на титуле: A. Namoradze, Tiflis. 1935.]

  • UTAGAWA TOYOKUNI I (1769–1825) Ichikawa Danjūrō VII (Ebizo V) in a shibaraku costume bursting through a paper screen. Surimono. Colour woodblock print: shikishiban, 8⅛ x 7⅛ in. (20.7 x 18.2 cm) Signed: Toyokuni ga Poem signed: Sakuragawa Jihinari Provenance: Sidney C. Ward
  • Iron tsuba of slightly elongated round form decorated with design of melon flowers, vines, and leaves in brass flat inlay (hira-zōgan) on both sides. Slightly raised rim (mimi) carved in a way to simulate ring-shaped covering (fukurin). Kozuka hitsu-ana and kogai hitsu-ana both plugged with soft metal (tim or lead). Copper sekigane. Heianjō or Kaga School. Muromachi or Momoyama period, 16th century. Iron, hira-zōgan brass inlay. Round (maru gata) form, diameter 79 mm. Size: 80.3 x 78.4 mm; thickness at seppa-dai: 3.4 mm; at the middle: 3.8 mm; before the rim: 2.4 mm, rim: 2.8 mm. Note on design: though this design resembles family crests with oak and mulberry leaves, I believe it's  a melon flower [see Jeanne Allen. Designer's guide to Samurai Patterns. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1990, page 114, №130 "Melon Flowers":

    Jeanne Allen. Designer's guide to Samurai Patterns. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 1990. Page 114, №130.

    Note about the distribution of thickness (niku-oki): "this tsuba has toroid features, niku raises from the rim towards the centre but thins once more out when approaching the seppa-dai" [M. Sesko, "Handbook...", p. 48].