Catalog (283)

Small shrine containing the figure of the sitting 11 headed Kannon, holding a flask in his left hand, his head crowned with the 10 heads of the different Buddhist deities, including Amida. He is sitting on a lotus throne that holds inside the figure of a reclining lion. The back of the zushi has a small moveable segment (now glued shut) that is supposed to reveal something in the base of the Kannon. The doors are decorated with inscribed ihai or ancestral tablets set in a field of autumn flowers and river. Japan, late Edo period, 19th century.
H of case 7 inches.
Traces of usage, mainly on the in- and outside of the case, moveable segment glued.

Small shrine with a wooden sculpture of Jizo, standing with a jewel in one hand (which are missing), his staff (which is missing) in the other. Here he is represented as Danda Jizo, assisting those who are suffering in hell and saving small children from the wheel of rebirth. The paintings on the doors show naked children chased by demons in hell. Polychromed wood with delicate details. Metal madorla. Japan, late Edo period, around 1800.
Height zushi: ca. 7 ½ inches.
Paintings on the doors rubbed, hardware fragile but functional. Jizo’s hands and attributes missing, glue stains on his back and feet.

Rare subject. Painting on the left door shows a human pleading with a demon holding a giant club, while below a child is being led away by a female soul. The right hand door shows a large red demon with club, chasing a child, while mothers seem to be wailing.

Kabuto maedate, or ornament that sits in the front of the Japanese helmet. Dragonfly. Gilded iron. Japan, 20th century.
L ca. 6 ¾ inches.
Good condition, one leg damaged.

Kabuto maedate, or ornament that sits in the front of the Japanese helmet. Long-horned monster face with fangs and pointy ears and tufts of hair. Polychromed and gilded wood with horse hair and metal wire. Japan, 19th/ 20th century.
H 6 5/8 inches, W 6 5/8 inches.
Good condition, ear restored, a few abrasions

Large storage jug of typical Shigaraki stoneware with small white inclusions, made in three sections, decorated in multicolor enamel and gold with a cat making a mouse train come to an abrupt halt. A cat, high back, hissing at the mouse going at the head of a train, makes the train come to a dead stop and the following mice tumble, roll, spill in a ripple effect. Funny details: tumbling palanquin, spilling fish, flying papers. Either folk art or export. Japan, 20th century.
Height: ca. 18.5 inches.
Unsigned work from a studio that decorates household ceramics with funny or fantastic images in overglaze enamels that can be fired at low temperatures.

Pipecase of the otoshizutsu form carved out of stag antler with a décor in low relief of a tiger crouching on a rock with sprigs of bamboo surrounding the rock. Surrounding the himotoshi is more bamboo. Unsigned. Japan, 19th century.
H 7 7/8 inches
Worn with old damages in thinner areas of the stag horn and small hole approximately where the pipe head would be, further scraped off with a knife.

Study of an elephant holding a piece of wood with its trunk, his skin hanging loosely about him. Dark brown patinated, light weight wood, the eyes inlaid in buffalo horn, the tusks bone. Japan, 19th century.
Length: 15.5 inches (39.1 cm)
Pupil to one eye missing, otherwise fine condition.

Hejzlar, Josef. Chinese Watercolours. London: Octopus Press 1980. Hardcover with dustjacket. Text ca. 60 pp., bibliography and index, 115 color illustrations of paintings on 96 pp. (photographed by B. Forman). About the members of the Shanghai school from the 19th and 20th century and their works.
Pages slightly yellowed, but all in all in very good condition with very little wear on the dustjacket

Ho, Wai-kam, Sherman E. Lee, Laurence Sickman and Mar F. Wilson, Eight Dynasties of Chinese Painting. The Collections of the Nelson Gallery-Atkins Museum, Kansas City, and The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art (and Indiana University Press) 1980. Hardcover with dustjacket.
Some wear and tear to dustjackets.

Hand shrine, or zushi, of the triptych type. Inside, in the middle section sits Amida Nyorai on a lotus base, flanked by Seishi and Kannon bosatsu. Inside the left panel, and inside the right panel tennin (apsara) flying over a lotus pond. Image of Western Paradise.
Sandal wood. The outside covered in a dark, translucent lacquer, sprinkled with clouds of nashiji and on the front two kiri-mon in slightly raised gold-takamakie and the overlap in the middle decorated with gold lacquer karakusa over silver lacquer background, imitating engraved hardware. The inside carved in raised relief in different levels, the background covered in lapis lazuli, the carving decorated with gold paint and touches of malachite. Silver hinges in the shape of butterflies.
Japan, Edo period, early 19th century.
Height: ca. 3 ½ inches; width when open: 5 ¾ inches (9 cm; 14.5 cm).
Lapis lazuli somewhat rubbed, all in all very good condition.

Hand shrine, or zushi, in the shape of a lotus bud, carved in two halves. On the inside, on one side the standing figure of Amida Nyorai on a lotus base, his hands in mudra. The other half of the lotus bud is decorated with a mutsume pattern (imitating a triaxial weaving) in kirikane (very thin strips of gold foil). Japan, Edo period, early 19th century.
Very light, soft wood. On the outside red lacquer, covered with leaf gold, that is partly rubbed off again. On the inside much of the carving is decorated with brush applied gold, and kirikane for the background of both halves.
Japan, Edo period, late 18th, early 19th century.
Total height: 4 ½ inch (11.4 cm).
One hand of the Buddha missing, the other glued, lower lip chafed. Few chips and dents at edges, all in all very good condition.

Dorrington-Ward, Carol (ed.), Fans from the east. New York: Debrett's Peerage Limited/The Viking Press 1978.
Hard cover binding with dust jacket.
Essays on fans in China (Julia Hutt), Japan (Joe Earle), Southeast Asia (Nancy Armstrong) an on Chinoiserie with 29 color plates and 79 b/w illustrations.
Dust jackets with minor abrasions (shelf wear) and covers slightly warped.

Schuster, Felicia and Cecilia Wolseley, Vases of the sea. Far Eastern porcelain and other treasures. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons 1974. Hard cover binding with dust jacket.
Book on vases from China and from Japan made of porcelain, bronze, jade and cloisonne, and also a chapter on ivory and on lacquer. Numerous color illustrations.
Few unimportant traces of usage on the dust jacket, all in all in near new condition.

Hobson, R.L., The wares of the Ming dynasty. Rutland/Tokyo: Charles E. Tuttle Company 1962. With dust jacket and with card board slip case. 1st edn. Little tear in back of dust jacket, all in all in near new condition.
Book on ceramics and porcelain with 9 color plates, 50 b/w plates, hand drawn marks, etc.

1) Stoneware incense box or kogo in the shape of an onna daruma (female daruma). She sits in the typical way, all rolled up in her garment, indicating that arms and legs may have fallen off. Her face shows striking similarity to Okame. Cream colored and reddish brown glaze over whitish soft clay, the face left partially free, fine crackle in the glaze. Japan, Meiji period.
2) Stoneware incense box or kogo in the shape of Daruma, wrapped in his reddish garment, his face peeing out of the garment, looking up. Cream colored and red glaze with some black accents over a whitish soft clay, the face left partially free, strong, but very fine crackle in the glaze. Raku stamp on the inside. Japan, Meiji period.
Height: ca. 1 ½ inches each.
Condition:
1) Outer edge of lower part with tiny frittings and chips, two tiny glaze chips along the lines of the crackle (hardly visible). Generally very good condition. 2) On the back tiny pieces of glaze missing between the crackle lines, otherwise excellent condition.

Small flat Buddhist shrine, constructed as a triptych. When open, the middle section houses Amida Nyorai in raised carving, sitting on a lotus throne under a baldachin and surrounded by clouds. On the left panel Seishi bosatsu with his hands folded in prayer, on the right panel Kannon bosatsu with the lotus in his hands. Both bodhisattva surrounded by clouds as well. Sandalwood with details of garment and baldachin in gold. Background in lapis blue.
The outside decorated in makie: A lotus pond with leaves and flowers in raised gold and silver takamakie and with okibirame. Over the pond clouds and two apsaras, playing the sho and the drum. Hinges in the form of silver butterflies. Japan, Edo period or early Meiji at the latest, 19th century.
Closed: 7.7 x 3.3 x 0.9 inches (12 x 8.5 x 2.3 cm).
Some warping, otherwise fine condition.

Shrines like these were often decorated on the outside by well known lacquer studios. Signatures were often put on the outside bottom of the case. In the 1915 Red Cross Exhibition a similar piece was shown (Sculpture, no. 24, and today included in the British Museum) that was described as carved by Naito Koseki and lacquered by Komatsu. This piece dates from the early 20th century. The quality of the lacquer work is clearly different from the piece here. Naito Koseki was a Buddhist sculptor who was still alive in the 1930s.

Sculpture of a bald headed man with a serene face, sitting while holding a small cymbal and drum stick in his hands. The cymbal and stick are connected to each other by a cord. The man dressed in Korean garment, as it is worn by Boddhisatva. Lime stone? Inside hollowed out. Korea, Choseon period, 18th century.
Height inches 14.2 inches (36 cm).
Excellent condition. Some pits in the surface, some traces of former pigmentation.

This piece was exhibited by The Chinese Porcelain Company, New York, in the 1990s, part of the Richard Ravenal collection.

Osvald Siren: Chinese Painting: Leading Masters and Principles. Part I; The First Millennium (3 vols.), London: Lund Humphries/New York: Ronald Press, 1956.
Vol.I: Early Chinese Paintings (xi+235pp., colored frontispiece and b/w ills.)
Vol.II: The Sung Period (vi+189pp. and annotated lists 95pp., colored frontispiece and b/w ills.)
Vol.III: Plates (xviii pp., 372 b/w plates).
Bound with red cloth, gilt title to front board and spine. With slip cases. 28.5x23cm.
Books very good codition. Splipcases with slight traces of usage.