Japanese Album. Village scenes. 日本のアルバム。村に。Around 1820-1830. 6 dressed painted canvases (24,5 x 31 cm each) Leporello, blue and gold woven covers, modern folding box in grey fabric, navy blue suede interior, 2 bone clasps.
The decorations are delicately watercoloured on fabric (linen or cotton?) and enhanced with gold-leaf. Characters and some utensils or tools are glued; clothes are made of shimmering fabrics, finely painted faces. Scenes, all with a red seal, represent storefronts of merchants : auction fish sale (near the Uobashi Bridge), Uji tea merchant, sushi restaurant, geta merchant, carpenter and pharmacist. Each store is well identified with its name inscribed on the fabric sign. These scenes are reminiscent of Kawahara Keiga’s paintings, done at the demand of Dutch, like Siebold, in the 1820-1830, on Japanese trades.
Gold of the covers a little tarnished.
Sumptuous album, with highlighting finesse and delicacy. We found no equivalent of this type of work.
6 000 €