Artist Index: Japan

Photographer: Kusakabe Kimbei, Ogawa Kazumasa and unknown. Views of landscapes and genre scenes of Japan. 1890s. 21 hand-colored albumen prints. Each circa 20 x 26 cm. Most with number and title in lower corner in the negative.

Several faded, some with light scuff/handling marks, a few small tears in edges, otherwise most in good condition.

Lit.: Claudio Pescio (ed.). Ineffabile Perfezione. La fotografia del giappone 1860-1910, Lugano 2010, ill. pp. 140 (Loom), 247 (Girls in Bedroom).

Photographer unknown. Landscapes, people and temples of Japan. Circa 1910. 54 hand-colored platinum prints. Each circa 22 x 29 cm and reverse. Some with title and number in the negative in lower edge, mounted to album pages, a few annotated in German in ink in upper corner on mount, bound in contemporary silk album (rubbed, frayed in edges) with cord binding. 31 x 43 cm.

This highly attractive album includes picturesque landscapes, genre scenes and people on farms and farming. The hand-colored platinum prints are of an exquisite quality and unusually fine. – Some prints buckled from glue, a few with light stains from glue on verso, a few with light fading in edges, otherwise most in good to very good condition.

Photographer: Felice Beato (1832-1909), Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1932) and others. Picturesque views of landscapes, temples and portraits of people of Japan. 1890s. 11 finely hand-colored albumen prints. Each circa 20,5 x 26 cm. Each flush-mounted to card, annotated in German in ink on the verso.

Some faded, some with light scuff marks, some creases, otherwise most in good condition.

um 1800. Okimono: Schädel mit Schlange und Frosch.
Elfenbein, geschnitzt. H. 6,2 cm.

Bei vorliegenden, überaus minutiös und filigran gearbeiteten Elfenbeinschädel, der Innen hohl belassen ist, handelt es sich um ein Okimono, das wörtlich gewissermaßen "Hinstellding" meint. Es handelt sich um ein objet vertu, also um ein Dekorationsgegenstand, der anders als etwa Netsuke, die eine Funktion hatten, tatsächlich zu dekorativen Zwecken aufgestellt wurde.

19. Jh. Okimono: Totentanz
Elfenbein, vollrund geschnitzt. 6 x 6,7 cm. Signiert.

19. Jh. Okimono: Spielende Gerippe mit einem Affen.
Elfenbein, vollrund geschnitzt, unter einem Glassturz. 8,8 x 5,5 cm.

19. Jh. Sieben Netsuke.
Fünf aus Elfenbein, einer aus Buchsbaum, ein Nusskern. H. 2,3 - 4,6 cm. Fünf signiert.

Beigegeben ein weiteres Netsuke (oder Okimono?) in Schädelform aus Bein, das darauf sitzende Klauentier fehlend.

Photographer: Felice Beato (1834-1909). Landscapes and people of Japan. Circa 1868-70s. 10 albumen prints (2 hand-colored). Each circa 22,5 x 29,5 cm. Each mounted to board (slightly warped, slightly toned in edges), most with printed text label on mount verso.

This attractive group of views are from "Views of Japan" by Beato, originally issued with seventy-five plates with descriptive texts. The uncolored nature scenes are particularily interesting. – Some faded, some with light surface scuffing, otherwise most in good to very good condition.

Lit.: Luke Gartlan. A Career of Japan. Baron Raimund von Stillfried and Early Yokohama Photography. Leiden/Boston 2016, ill. p. 47 (View of the Tokaido).

Photographer/artist: Felice Beato (1832-1909) and Charles Wirgman (1832-1891). Early album of types and scenes of Japanese life photographed by Felice Beato with reproductions of Charles Wirgman's watercolor scenes of Japanese life. 1863-65. 61 albumen prints (30 portraits, 31 photographic reproductions of C. Wirgman watercolors). Various sizes between 17 x 13 cm and 23 x 19 cm. Mounted to boards (slightly wavy, some soiling at front and back of album), most with letterpress title caption label below the image on the mount, bound in European canvas album (spine missing, edges frayed) with gilt title Album (32 x 25 cm), front flyleaf with handwritten entry: Gustav Kinder und Frau als Geschenk von Herrn Textor 1866 in ink.

The period between 1853-1867 (Bakumatsu period) was the most turbulent period in Japanese history. At that time, the country was deeply divided between nationalism and xenophobia on the one hand and a great curiosity about Western modernity on the other. Beato settled in Japan in 1863, where he was assigned to the British Naval Forces, which joined the French, Dutch and Americans in executing a punitive expedition to Shimonoseki. Among others the officers of the Dutch warship "Medusa" are depicted as a group portrait in this album. Another very interesting photograph (photomontage) shows a large group of 23 Western diplomats and merchants, based in Yokohama and Edo. In 1866 a great fire destroyed part of the foreign settlement of Yokohama, Beato's studio included. Beato lost a large part of his photographic work and had to replenish his portfolio. Charles Wirgman's watercolors with scenes from Japanese life helped complete Beato's reduced portfolio. Some of the prints in this album seem to be reproductions, which can be explained by the loss of many of Beato's negatives.The first inside page of the album bears an entry stating that this album was a gift from Mr. Textor to the Kinder family and is dated 1866 (!).
This unusual album leaves many open questions as to its exact purpose. Gustav Kinder might have been gifted this album by Textor as a souvenir of his time in Japan.
Together with Dirk de Graeff van Polsbroek, Carl Julius Textor founded the trading company Textor & Co. in Dejima in 1858. The recipient of the gift, Mr. Kinder, was a Dresden-born businessman, who was later active as a consul for Denmark and other countries in Dutch East Indies.
We would like to thank Sebastian Dobson and Joachim K. Bautze for providing additional information about the history of this album. – Most photos with fading in edges, some with surface scuff/scratch marks, otherwise several in good to very good condition.

Lit.: Grégoire Mayor/Ayiyoshi Tani (eds.). Japan in Early Photographs. The Aimé Humbert Collection at the Museum of Ethnography, Neuchatel. Stuttgart 2018, ill. pp. 60, 107, 137, 163, 165, 193,198, 199, 202, 204, 205, 206, 213 and 214.
Anne Lacoste. Felice Beato. A Photographer on the Eastern Road (exhibition catalogue). Los Angeles 2010, ill. plate 17.

Photographer: Adolfo Farsari (1841-1898) and Uchida Kuichi (1844-1875). Views of people and landscapes of Japan. 1890s. 36 hand-colored albumen prints. Each circa 24 x 19 cm and 19 x 24 cm. Each photo with title and number in the negative in lower corners, mounted to gilt-edged album boards (slightly warped, some foxing, stronger at beginning and end of album), with several original printed Farsari protective sheets, bound in contemporary decorative black laquer album (minimal chips/scratches) with gold lacquer ornaments (urushi), with leather spine (minimally rubbed), ornamental painting on back cover, with original title photograph "Views & Costumes of Japan. A. Farsari &Co., Yokohama" at front of album, in original ornamental paper/red silk lined box.

The Italian photographer Adolfo Farsari lived and worked in Yokohama, Japan. Following a brief military career he became a successful commercial photographer. His photographic work was highly regarded, particularly his hand-colored portraits and landscapes, which he sold mostly to foreign residents and visitors to the country. Farsari's images were widely distributed, presented and mentioned in books and periodicals. His studio, the last notable foreign-owned studio in Japan, was one of the country's largest and most prolific commercial photographic firms. Largely due to Farsari's high technical standards and his entrepreneurial abilities he had a significant influence on the development of photography in Japan. This attractive and fine album is an example of the unusually fine hand-coloring typical of Farsari's studio. It includes many charming portraits, among them the famous and rare portrait of the Meiji Emperor taken by Uchida Kuichi in 1873. This portrait was made only for official use and its distribution was originally forbidden. – Album exceptionally well preserved, some prints minimally faded in edges, some with light surface scuff marks/scratches, otherwise in very good condition.

Lit.: Terry Bennett. Photography in Japan 1853-1912. Tokyo 2006.

Photographer: Baron Raimund Stillfried-Ratenicz (1839-1911) and others. Picturesque views of landscapes and temples of Japan. Circa 1900. 32 albumen prints. Each circa 19 x 24 cm. Most with number and title in lower edge in the negative. Each mounted to board (soiled and time-stained in edges) in contemporary folder.

Some faded, some with light scuff marks, otherwise most in good to very good condition.

Photographer: possibly Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1932) and unknown. Landscapes, people and temples of Japan. Circa 1900. 54 hand-colored albumen prints. Each circa 20 x 26 cm. Some with title and number in the negative in lower edge, mounted to gilt-edged album boards (some light foxing), bound in contemporary half leather album (edges rubbed) with gilt-stamped title Japan 1903 on front cover, 29 x 39 cm.

An attractive album mostly with picturesque landscapes, but also a few interesting genre scenes. – Some prints with light surface scuff marks/scratches, several with light foxing, some faded, otherwise in good to very good condition.

Photographer: Adolfo Farsari (1841-1898), Kusakabe Kimbei (1841-1932) and others. Small leporello album with portraits and landscape views of Japan. 1880s. 50 hand-colored albumen prints. Each circa 13 x 9 cm and 9 x 13 cm. Mounted to album boards, bound together as leporello in silk album (slightly soiled,11,5 x 16 cm).

Includes attractive portraits, genre scenes and several landscapes. – Some faded in edges, a few with scratches/surface abrasions, otherwise in very good condition.

Photographer unknown. Portraits of Japanese women in tradtional dress. Circa 1910. 3 hand-colored platinum prints. Each circa 29 x 12 cm. Each matted and framed under glass.

Fine tonal prints in very good condition.

Photographer unknown. Views of Japan. Circa 1910. 6 hand-colored platinum prints. Each circa 20 x 25 cm.

In very good condition.