/Collection
  • Iron tsuba of half round and half lobed (chrysanthemoid) form decorated with plants and family crests (mon) in cast brass inlay (suemon-zōgan), and scattered brass dots inlay (ten-zōgan); brass wire inlay outlining the rim, seppa-dai, and hitsu-ana (scalloped wire) on both sides. Surface treated with hummer punch marks. The chrysanthemoid half of the plate chiseled  with thin shallow grooves, outlining the petals. Copper sekigane. On the face the inlay represents: mandarin orange (tachibana), half karahana, encircled bellflower, and four encircled three-stipe family crest (mitsubiki-mon of Sakuma and Abe clans, and some others). On the reverse the design is similar but two of the mitsubiki-mon symbols replaced with two comb-shaped Genji-mon ideographs. Ōnin school. The end of mid-Muromachi period, beginning of the 16th century. Size: 74.3 x 72.7 x 2.4 mm.  
  • Very fine iron plate well hammered and turned, tapering and rolling to the rounded edge. Tsuba of a cross-form mokko shape (juji-mokko-gata) decorated with spider web inlaid in gold on both sides. The face is carved with a silver-damascened spider holding a gold-damascened butterfly (nunome-zōgan). Kozuka and kogai hitsu-ana of inome (boar's eye) form. The udenuki ana may be of purely decorative purpose.

    Signed: Yatsushiro [八代] Jingo Saku [甚吾作], a signature of Chisokutei Amatsune, one of the last Jingo masters.

    Late Edo period, Tenpō era, 1830-1844.

    Size: Height: 77.5 mm; Width: 72.8 mm; Thickness: 4.1 mm; Weight: 141 g.

    In a custom wooden box.

    Here is what Markus Sesko wrights in his book The Japanese toso-kinko Schools, 2012, on page 374:
    An artist who worked in the style of the Shimizu-Jingo school was Chisokutei Amatsune (知足亭天常). He was actually a samurai from Yatsushiro who made tsuba as a sideline. An extant old hakogaki of one of his pieces mentions that he died in Edo in the sixth month of An'ei eight (1779) at the age of 73. But the era of An'ei is probably wrong because Chikokutei (sic) is today dated by most experts around Tenpō (1830-1844). His relationships with the Shimizu school or under which Jingo master he had studied are unknown. From the point of view of production time and the finishing of nakago-ana, he is rather associated with the 5th and last gen. Shigenaga who died in the seventh year of Kaei (1854). A peculiarity of  Chisokutei was that he signed his Jingo copies with  "Yatsushiro Jingo Saku" ([八代甚吾作) but added the small syllable "chi" () or the character "Chi" (知) for "Chisokutei" to identify them as copies.
    No longer available.
  • Pro-tech Walter Brend custom switchblade knife with solid 416 stainless steel frame, amber jigged bone inlays, mirror polished 154-CM blade.

    Size: 94 mm (closed); 168 mm (opned); 74 mm blade)

  • Netsuke of Kimi no Eguchi on a recumbent elephant.  Signed: Toun. Circa 1850. 33.7 x 30.8 x 22.7 mm. The Courtesan Eguchi no kimi as Fugen, Bodhisattva of Universal Wisdom (Eguchi no kimi mitate Fugen Bosatsu). The imagery satirizes the Buddhist bodhisattva Fugen, whose iconographic mount is an elephant, by replacing the deity with a beautifully coiffed modern courtesan. Such a visual pun (mitate) was an artistic trope, popular in the Edo period. Provenance: Charles Ephrussi (1849-1905) acquired in the 1870s; a wedding gift in 1898 to his cousin Ritter Viktor von Ephrussi (1860-1945) and Baroness Emilie (Emmy) Schey von Koromla (1879-1938); retrieved post-war by their daughter Elizabeth de Waal (1899-1991); given by her to her brother Ignaz (Iggie) Ephrussi (1906-1994), Tokyo; bequeathed by him to his great-nephew Edmund de Waal (born 1964), London, author of "The Hare with Amber Eyes: a hidden inheritance". London / New York: Chatto & Windus / Farrar, Straus & Giroux. ISBN 978-0099539551. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ephrussihttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephrussi_familyhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edmund_de_Waal.
  • [Bonaparte, Louis Napoleon]. The Political and Historical Works of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte, President of the French Republic, Now First Collected With An Original Memoir of His Life, Brought Down to the Promulgation of the Constitution of 1852; and Occasional Notes, Complete in Two Volumes. London: Illustrated London Library, MDCCCLII [1852]. Collation: Vol. 1: [i-v] vi [vii-viii (blank)] [1] 2-462 [463,464 (blank)]; Vol. 2: [1-3] 4-439 [440]. Size: 22.8 x 14.8 cm (8vo), each. Binding: hardcover; half red morocco and cloth boards, five raised bands, gilt title and decoration, top edge gilt. Frontispiece portrait of Louis Napoleon Bonaparte in Vol. 1. Condition: Very good, rubbing to outer joints, leather corners, faint foxing to endpapers, ownership signature on half-title. Internally bright and unmarked. In binding by Brentano's, New York.
  • Title: Eleventh lunar month (Chuto 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.
  • Artist: James (nothing else is known). According to Maurice Quentin-Bouchart (p. 95), this is sheet №2 of only two known caricatures by James except for Collection Wentzell (publisher) of 14 sheets. Text: De bien jolies bottes, ces Prussiens, mais quelle odeur!..... [What beautiful boots these Prussians have, but what an odour!.....] Two women from the bourgeoisie stand in front of a line of Prussian officers. One covers her nose with a handkerchief and hides what she is saying from the men with her fan.
  • Half-title: BARON MUNCHAUSEN Title: THE TRAVELS | AND | SURPRISING ADVENTURES | OF | BARON MUNCHAUSEN. | ILLUSTRATED WITH | THIRTY-SEVEN CURIOUS ENGRAVINGS, | FROM | THE BARON'S OWN DESIGNS, | AND FIVE WOODCUTS, | BY G. CRUIKSHANK. | [device] | LONDON : WILLIAM TEGG. | 1869.|| [RASPE, Rudolf Erich]. The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen. / Illustrated with 37 curious engravings, from the Baron's own designs, and five woodcuts, by G. Cruikshank. — London: William Tegg, 1869. Pagination: xii + [10] + 268 pp, 23 plates: hand-coloured engraved frontispiece, 5 woodcuts by Cruikshank, other b/w etchings, two folding plates. Binding: 19 x 13 cm; hardbound, 8vo, early 20th century 3/4 dark plum morocco gilt-ruled, raised bands, title label, gilt lettering, gilt in compartments, top edge gilt. Catalogue raisonné: A. Cohn: #584, p. 172. This edition is an identical re-issue of the 1867 edition.
  • Porcelaneous stoneware vase glazed in purple-red with blue and beige splashes outside and dark blue inside, with one tube in the centre surrounded with eight peripheral tubes. Base unglazed. China, the Qianlong period (1711 – 1799) of the Qing Dynasty (1644 – 1912). Diameter: 19 cm; Height: 24 cm.
  • Vol. 1: THE | POEMS | OF | OSSIAN. | TRANSLATED | By JAMES MACPHERSON, Esq; | IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. | A NEW EDITION. | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR W. STRAHAN ; AND T. CADELL, | IN THE STRAND. | M DCC XC.|| Pagination: 2 blank leaves, [2] - t.p. / blank, [v] vi-xiv, [2] - contents / cont., [1, 2] 3-404, one blank leaf. Collation: 8vo; π1 A-Z8 Aa-Cc8 Dd2 Vol. 2: THE | POEMS | OF | OSSIAN. | TRANSLATED | By JAMES MACPHERSON, Esq; |  VOL. II. | A NEW EDITION. | LONDON: | PRINTED FOR W. STRAHAN ; AND T. CADELL, | IN THE STRAND. |M DCC XC.|| Pagination: 2 blank leaves, [2] - t.p. / blank, [2] - contents / blank, [1, 2] 3-436, [2] advert. / advert., two blank leaves. Collation: 8vo; π4 B-Z8 Aa-Ee8 Ff2 A1. Two volumes, 21.5 x 14 cm; hardcover; full tree calf gilt-tooled with stylized meander ruled boards inside and outside, flat spite tooled in gilt with meander and pineapples in compartments, two crimson lettered labels. margins speckled blue; peacock marbled endpapers, owner's karks to front pastedown: Owen J. Williams sticker and H. A. Lonis armorial bookplate with an earl's crown, hand-written inscription H. A. and H. C.  Williams Wynn and ink stamp of Arthur J. Frank. James Macpherson (British, 1736–1796) was a Scottish writer, poet, literary collector and politician, known as the "translator" of the Ossian cycle of epic poems. Publishing Year: 1790 Publisher: W. Strahan and T. Cadell
  • Hardcover, 32 x 23.5 cm, publisher's blue cloth, blind-stamped to cover, gilt lettering to spine, pictorial DJ; pp.: [1-6] 7-375 [376 blank], ill.
    This catalogue features the top ten percent of the collection ... presented in an exhibition ['Great ukiyo-e masters : common pleasures, uncommon prints : Japanese woodcuts from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts', sponsored by Asano Laboratories] that opened in Tokyo at the Shoto Museum of Art on October 2, 2007, and traveled to the Nara Prefectural Museum of Art and the Sanritz Hattori Museum of Arts"--Foreword. "This [2011] publication ... coincides with a special exhibition, 'Edo Pop: Japanese Master Prints from the Minneapolis Institute of Arts' (October 16, 2011, through January 8, 2012), which will [also] be shown at the High Museum of Art in Atlanta ..."--Foreword. "With contributions by Shūgō Asano, Akane Fujisawa, Murasaki Fujisawa, Yuriko Iwakiri, Yōsuke Katō, Junko Mutō, Noriko Yamamoto. Contents: Foreword / Kaywin Feldman Acknowledgments / Matthew Welch, Yuiko Kimura-Tilford Seductive beauty : coveting and collecting Ukiyo-e / Matthew Welch Time line of the artists Catalogue of selected prints Object list in English and Japanese
  • Cover (in blackletter): H. L. Rosegger. | Von Königen u. Jakobinern | {vignette by von Bayros} | Verlag C. Seifert | • Köstritz u Leipzig • || Title (blackletter): Von Königen | und Jakobinern | Von | Hans Ludwig Rosegger | mit vier Vollbildern und Buchschmuck | von Marquis F. von Bayros | {publisher’s device} | 1913 | C. Seifert Verlag, G.m.b.H. | Köstritz und Leipzig || Pagination: [2] – t.p. / blank, [2] – contents / blank, [1-3] 4-263 [264 vignette, colophon], 4 plates extraneous to collation, 2 vignettes. Collation: 8vo; 1-168 174. Binding: Hardcover, pictorial paper boards, lettering to spine, lettering and vignette by von Bayros to cover. Owner's inscription to ffl: "T. Lewe. März, 1919."
  • Cover: Акц. О-во “МЕЖДУНАРОДНАЯ КНИГА” | МОСКВА, Кузнецкий Мост, 12. Тел. 1-20-21. | АНТИКВАРНЫЙ КНИЖНЫЙ МАГАЗИН | ДЕЗИДЕРАТА | РУССКОГО БИБЛИОФИЛА | DESIDERATA OF A RUSSIAN BIBLIOPHILE | MEZHDUNARODNAYA KNIGA | Antiquarian Departament | Moscow — Kuznetski Most, 12. || Title: DESIDERATA | РУССКОГО БИБЛИОФИЛА | РЕДЧАЙШИЕ КНИГИ И ИХ | СОВРЕМЕННАЯ РАСЦЕНКА | СОСТАВИЛ П. П. ШИБАНОВ | (К ДОКЛАДУ В РУССКОМ ОБЩЕСТВЕ | ДРУЗЕЙ КНИГИ 15 АПРЕЛЯ 1927 Г.) | МОСКВА — 1927 || Title verso: Корректурное издание в количестве 200 нумерованных экземпляров, из которых №№ 1–100 для членов Русского Общества Друзей Книгию Отпечатано в 13-й типографии Мосполиграф «Мысль Печатника» Главлит №85566. № 121. Back cover: "Не для продажи". Publisher’s lettered wrappers, 21.5 x 15 cm, pagination: [1-4] 5-15 [16 blank]; stamps and inscriptions to covers, markings inside. Limited edition of 200 copies, of which this copy is № 121. Шибанов, Павел Петрович (Russian, 1864 – 1935).
  • Polina de Mauny [Vladimirova] (Russian-French, b. 1981). Dry pastel on black paper. Size: 30.5 x 23 cm.
  • Title : CHARLES VIRMAITRE | LA COMMUNE | A PARIS | 1871 | {cit. 5 lines Emile de Girardin} | PARIS | LIBRAIRIE INTERNATIONALE | A. LACROIX, VERBOECKHOVEN ET Ce, ÉDITEURS | 15 boulevart Montmartre et faubourg Montmartre, 13 | MÉME MAISON A BRUXELLES, A LEIPZIG ET A LIVOURNE | 1871 | DROITS DE TRADUCTION ET DE REPRODUCTION RÉSERVÉS || Pagination : [2] – h.t. / imprint., [2] – t.p. / blank, [2] – dedicatation to Thiers / blank, [2] – table / blank, [1], 2-280; [total 288 pages]. Collation: 18mo; π4 1-1318 1514. Binding: red quarter morocco over red buckram boards, raised bands, gilt lettering, gilt flower lozenges in compartments, marbled endpapers.
  • Title page: АКАДЕМИЯ НАУК СССР | В. П. ВОЛГИН. | ФРАНЦУЗСКИЙ | УТОПИЧЕСКИЙ | КОММУНИЗМ | ИЗДАТЕЛЬСТВО АКАДЕМИИ НАУК СССР | МОСКВА 1960 || Pagination: [1-5] 6-375 [376], errata slip. Collation: 8vo; [1]-228, 234, 248 (total 188 leaves) + errata slip; 171 unsigned. Print run: 4200 copies. Binding: Burgundy buckram, lettering in blind-stamped frame: В. П. Волгин. Французский утопический коммунизм. Contributor: Волгин, Вячеслав Петрович (Russian, 1879 – 1962) – author.
  • Title page: THE | SECRET AGENT | A SIMPLE TALE | BY | JOSEPH CONRAD | METHUEN & CO. | 36 ESSEX STREET W.C. | LONDON || Imprint on t.p. verso: First Published in 1907 Dedication: To H. G. Wells. Pagination: [2] – blank, [6] – h.t., t.p., dedication; 1-442, [2] colophon: THE RIVERSIDE PRESS LIMITED, EDINBURGH / blank; [1-2] 3-40 – Catalogue of books published by Methuen and company, September 1907; total 492 pages. Collation: 8vo; π4, A-Z8 2A-2D8, 2E6, + 20 leaves of advertisement: signed A2 on leaf 5 and A3 on leaf 9, other unsigned, 2E2 signed; total 246 leaves. Binding: Publisher’s burgundy cloth with gilt lettering and elements to spine, lower margin untrimmed, 19.5 x 13.5 cm. Edition: 1st edition, 1st printing ("be be" on the last line of page 117) of 2,500 copied printed. Contributors: Conrad, Joseph (Polish-British, 1857 – 1924) – author. Methuen & Co. (London) – publisher. The Riverside Press Limited (Edinburgh) – printer. Herbert George Wells (British, 1866 – 1946) – dedicatee.
  • Pictorial title page in blue and black: Louis Icart | Erotica | William R. Holland | {vignette} | Schiffer | Publishing Ltd | 4880 Lower Valley Road, Atglen, PA 19310 USA || Pagination: [1-6] 7-175 [176], plates within pagination. Binding: black cloth, blue lettering to front cover and spine, marbled endpapers, pictorial dust jacket: Louis Icart | Erotica | William R. Holland | With Value Guide | A Schiffer book for collectors || Contributors: Louis Icart (French, 1888 – 1950) – artist. William R. Holland (American, fl. c. 2000) – author. Schiffer Publishing Ltd., – publisher.