Dear Friends
Welcome to our March newsletter.
February continued with much the same weather as January left behind, nothing but torrential rain seemingly arriving every day, all rather depressing, and made worse when my lifelong pal (now ex lifelong pal) had the audacity to message me from the Far East bemoaning that he had to put flip flops on to go into the sea, as the sand was baking hot. Well, what he didn’t know was that he wasn’t alone, we also needed suitable footwear to protect our feet to walk the dog on our local beach every morning… bloody Wellington boots… Grrr!!!!
Thankfully there were no such negatives on a business footing, if you’ll excuse the pun.
On the first day of the month, I secured the sale of our February featured item the most unusual Satsuma crane vase, on this occasion joining a distinguished UK collection.
Meanwhile, our stunning little Cloisonne enamel vase by Namikawa Yasuyuki was making the long journey to its new home in Australia to sit amongst an exceptional collection of assorted Japanese Meiji period works of art.
Another item heading to the other side of the globe was this gorgeous silver and mixed metal vase depicting a cockerel and chicks, artist signed by Sekiguchi Shinya (1877-1932) now heading back home to Japan.
Many thanks once again to the above clients for their continued patronage.
As this month’s featured item I am thrilled to be able to offer this most charming carved wooden okimono of a wild boar complete with its fully inscribed tomobako. I am not quite sure what Ted made of the carving, but he does provide a perfect companion to scale the object, a fabulous example of wood carving by an Imperial artist, do please take a look.
And finally, I was delighted with the response to last month’s campaign to raise funds for the RSPCA. Whilst I only managed to shift a few copies of my catalogues the generosity of those supporters was beyond my expectations, with donations arriving from clients in the USA as well as the UK. A total of £224 was raised and is now on its way to this very worthy cause, sincere thanks to all that gave so generously.
Best wishes
Steve