Dear Friends
Welcome to our March newsletter, what a pleasure it is to finally sense the arrival of Spring, which together with Autumn are without doubt my two favourite seasons.
Spring brings us warmth, light, and renewed life, in fact, as I sit in my garden office penning this letter ever present birdsong can be heard from the hedgerows, with the robins, blackbirds and other native species busying themselves for nesting season.
For generations all genres of Japanese art have been heavily influenced by the four seasons, and probably none more so than Spring with the arrival of the cherry blossom. Japanese artisans and poets have been inspired by its arrival, albeit for such a brief appearance, usually arriving in March through to mid-April depending on the geographical location across the islands. Its transient nature means it may last for only a few days in some instances and possibly up to a couple of weeks in ideal conditions.
The practise of Hanami ( “hana “meaning flower and “ mi “ meaning to view ) is a national institution, with hundreds of thousands of Japanese taking the opportunity to picnic under the trees to celebrate this special occasion. Today the locals are joined by a huge influx of tourists also looking to take part in the celebrations, literally increasing Kyoto and Tokyo’s capacity and stretching the infrastructure to bursting point… it’s not the ideal time to visit Japan.
Coincidentally, this month’s featured item displays a Hanami scene in outstanding detail upon a most unusual vase painted by a leading Satsuma artist in collaboration with the Kinkozan studios of Kyoto.
February delivered multiple sales to clients in the UK, the two bronze animalia jardinières pictured above were sold to one client as planters for floral displays at his retail premises, both pieces stemming from the highly acclaimed Genryusai Seiya studios, thank you to that client for his return business.
At long last we sold the final remaining cloisonne enamel vase from a vast USA collection that we were fortunate to be offered back in the pre covid era, a magnificent if quite diverse collection with prices ranging from the low hundreds to in excess of £100,000 in one instance. The mount Fuji vase by Ando Company is now on its way to a European collection. That’s one chapter closed, and so the search continues for the next exciting market fresh collection.
The large unusual ferry boat okimono also stemming from the Seiya studios is now residing in a new UK based Japanese art enthusiasts home, where I am sure it will be enjoyed for years to come.
Following on from last month’s newsletter a young enthusiastic dealer in Meiji period art made an approach for our charming little Kinkozan Satsuma vase as well as the delightful little gold lacquer Kobako, both of which I was pleased to negotiate a trade discount and safely deliver.
With so much old knowledge either retiring or sadly dying off, it is refreshing to encounter younger dealers eager to learn and continue to promote these wonderful Japanese Meiji Period artworks. This young man is successfully promoting Japanese artworks to the emerging Chinese market, a market that has slowed down slightly due to the state of the economy but is certain to remain very strong in the future. The tech savvy wealthy generation are beginning to appreciate that in most forms Meiji period works of art are unsurpassable, certainly in terms of quality and craftsmanship, particularly the finest mixed metal, enamels and lacquer wares. These are artworks of a quality that are simply impossible to fake to a high standard, if at all. It would be reasonable to suggest that these works represent much sounder investments than many of the mass produced and often faked Chinese artworks offered on the worldwide marketplaces.
A special thank you to that young dealer, whose feedback was very rewarding … “Steve, your pieces are always better when they arrive than the photos suggest”.
This brings me onto this month’s featured item and photography, Satsuma of the quality of this example can be very difficult to fully appreciate based on images alone. If you focus too close you may distort the scene, too dark or too light and it’s difficult to accurately portray what is in this instance an absolute masterpiece painted by Keizan a retained artist for Kinkozan.
I think our photographer Emma has managed to achieve a fair representation in these images. The Hanami scene in a park, presumably in Kyoto, is as fine as you could ever imagine. And then we look to the reverse to see a further painting of Cockerels in a bamboo garden scene, this subject was most likely inspired by Sozan, undoubtedly the lead artist at the highly acclaimed Kinkozan studios of Kyoto.
That’s it for this month folks, I am concentrating my efforts on sourcing enough market fresh pieces of a standard suitable for the proposed Autumn catalogue whilst keeping the online gallery ticking over, it’s been quite a battle but one that I relish. It’s not as if I can nip to Walmart or go online to Amazon and place an order, is it 😊
Best Wishes
Steve