THE MISUMI COLLECTION Important Works of Lacquer Art and Paintings: Part II Tuesday 10 November 2015 THE MISUMI COLLECTION Important Works of Lacquer Art and Paintings: Part II Tuesday 10 November 2015 at 1pm 101 New Bond Street, London VIEWING ENQUIRIES CUSTOMER SERVICES Please see page 2 for bidder Saturday 7 November 11am - 5pm Specialist, Head of Department Monday to Friday 8.30 to 6.00 information including after-sale Sunday 8 November 11am - 5pm Suzannah Yip +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 collection and shipment Monday 9 November 9am - 7.30pm +44 (0) 20 7468 8368 [email protected] Please see page 4 for bidder For the sole purpose of providing SALE NUMBER: information including after-sale estimates in three currencies in the catalogue the conversion 23268 Cataloguer collection and shipment Yoko Chino has been made at the exchange rate of approx. CATALOGUE: +44 (0) 20 7468 8372 Physical Condition of Lots in [email protected] this Auction £1: ¥185.6985 £25.00 £1: USD1.5400 Department Assistant PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE Please note that this rate may well BIDS Masami Yamada IS NO REFERENCE IN THIS have changed at the date of +44 (0) 20 7447 7448 +44 (0) 20 7468 8217 CATALOGUE TO THE PHYSICAL the auction. +44 (0) 20 7447 4401 fax [email protected] CONDITION OF ANY LOT. To bid via the internet please INTENDING BIDDERS MUST お品物のコンディションについて visit bonhams.com Senior Consultants SATISFY THEMSELVES AS TO Neil Davey THE CONDITION OF ANY LOT 本カタログにはお品物の損傷等 Please note that bids should be +44 (0) 20 7468 8288 AS SPECIFIED IN CLAUSE 15 コンディションの記述は記載 submitted no later than 4pm on [email protected] OF THE NOTICE TO BIDDERS されていないことを、予めご了 the day prior to the sale. New CONTAINED AT THE END OF 承ください。入札をご希望の bidders must also provide proof Joe Earle THIS CATALOGUE. お客様は、カタログ巻末の of identity when submitting bids. +44 (0) 20 7468 8217 「Notice to Bidders（入札され Failure to do this may result in [email protected] As a courtesy to intending る方へのご注意）」第15条をご your bid not being processed. bidders, Bonhams will provide a 参照くださりますよう、お願い Department Fax written Indication of the physical 申し上げます。 Live online bidding is available +44 (0) 20 7495 5840 condition of lots in this sale if a for this sale request is received up to 24 hours ご希望のお客様には、オークショ Please email [email protected] Tokyo before the auction starts. ン開始の24時間前まで、 with ‘live bidding’ in the subject Akiko Tsuchida This written Indication is issued コンディション•レポートの依頼 line 48 hours before the auction +81 (0) 3 5532 8636 subject to Clause 1.6 of the を受け付けております。こちら to register for this service [email protected] Notice to Bidders. は、「Notice to Bidders（入札 されるお客様へのご注意）」 1.6条に基づき作成されます。 IMPORTANT INFORMATION The United States Government has banned the import of ivory into the USA. Lots containing ivory are indicated by the symbol Ф printed beside the lot number in this catalogue. Bonhams 1793 Limited Bonhams 1793 Ltd Directors Bonhams UK Ltd Directors Registered No. 4326560 Robert Brooks Co-Chairman, Colin Sheaf Chairman, Jonathan Baddeley, Andrew McKenzie, Simon Mitchell, Jeff Muse, Registered Office: Montpelier Galleries Malcolm Barber Co-Chairman, Antony Bennett, Matthew Bradbury, Mike Neill, Charlie O’Brien, Giles Peppiatt, Montpelier Street, London SW7 1HH Colin Sheaf Deputy Chairman, Lucinda Bredin, Harvey Cammell, Simon Cottle, Peter Rees, Iain Rushbrook, John Sandon, Matthew Girling CEO, Andrew Currie, Paul Davidson, Jean Ghika, Tim Schofield, Veronique Scorer, +44 (0) 20 7393 3900 Patrick Meade Group Vice Chairman, Charles Graham-Campbell, Miranda Leslie, James Stratton, Roger Tappin, Ralph Taylor, +44 (0) 20 7393 3905 fax Geoffrey Davies, Jonathan Horwich, Richard Harvey, Robin Hereford, Asaph Hyman, Shahin Virani, David Williams, James Knight, Caroline Oliphant, Charles Lanning, Gordon McFarlan, Michael Wynell-Mayow, Suzannah Yip. Hugh Watchorn. SALE INFORMATION Marylebone Road Regent St. Gloucester Place Baker St. Bonhams, New Bond Street Marble Arch Oxford Oxford Street Regent St. Street Davies St. Bond St. New Bond Street Station Park Lane Grosvenor St. Berkeley St. Hyde Park Piccadilly Bids Collection and Storage Important Notice VAT refunds on exports from +44 (0) 20 7447 7448 after sale A surcharge of 2% is applicable the EU +44 (0) 20 7447 7401 fax All sold lots will remain in when using Mastercard, Visa To submit a claim for refund of [email protected] Bonhams New Bond Street and overseas debit cards. VAT HMRC require lots to be www.bonhams.com Collections department without exported from the EU within charge until Wednesday 19 The following symbol is used to strict deadlines. Payments November 2014. After this date denote that VAT is due on the Buyers please contact the department. hammer price and buyer’s For lots on which Import VAT +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 premium has been charged; marked in +44 (0) 20 7447 7401 fax Payment in advance the catalogue with a * or Ω, lots Tel: +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 to † VAT 20% on hammer price must be exported within 30 Sellers ascertain amount due by: cash, and buyer’s premium days of Bonhams’ receipt of Payment of sale proceeds cheque with banker’s card, payment and within 3 months of +44 (0) 20 7447 7447 credit card, bank draft or * VAT on imported items at a the sale date. For all other lots +44 (0) 20 7447 7401 fax traveller’s cheque. preferential rate of 5% on export must take place within 3 hammer price and the prevailing months of the sale date. Valuations, taxation and Payment at time of collection rate on buyer’s premium heritage By credit card / debit card For further VAT information +44 (0) 20 7468 8340 W These lots will be removed to please contact: +44 (0) 20 7468 5860 fax Cites Regulations Bonhams Park Royal after the [email protected] [email protected] Please be aware that all Lots sale. Please read the sale marked with the symbol Y are information page for more Catalogue subscriptions subject to CITES requlations details. To obtain any Bonhams when exporting these items catalogue or outside the EU. The regulations AR These lots are subject to the to take out an annual may be found at www.ukcites. Artists Resale Right levy. Please subscription: gov.uk or may be requested refer to the information in Subscriptions Department from: section 7 of the Notice to +44 (0) 1666 502200 Bidders at the back of the +44 (0) 1666 505107 fax UK CITES Management catalogue. [email protected] Authority Zone 117 Shipping Temple Quay House For information and estimates 2 The Square on domestic and international Temple Quay shipping as well as export BRISTOL BS1 6EB licenses please contact Bonhams Shipping Department on: +44 (0) 20 8963 2849 +44 (0) 20 8963 2850 +44 (0) 20 7629 9673 fax [email protected] 4 | BONHAMS FOREWORD FROM THE COLLECTOR In my Foreword to last year’s catalogue of Part 1 of the Misumi Collection, It is evident from Zeshin’s surviving works just how interested he was in I had something to say about my private theories on the subject of subori, chōkoku and how much he enjoyed carving. Subori, one of his distinctive a carving technique used by Shibata Zeshin. Since then my discussions techniques, is very rarely seen in other lacquer ware, not least perhaps with other diligent students of Zeshin, as well as respected scholars and because the right kind of chisel would not be found among a traditional lacquer artists, have led me to the conclusion that Zeshin’s use of carving maki-e artist’s tools. It seems clear that two of the underlying causes as an expressive medium took two distinct forms: one of them carving in behind Zeshin’s eventual adoption of subori as a means of artistic three dimensions, or chōkoku, and the other flat carving, or subori. expression were both the early influence of his father, a professional woodcarver for temples and shrines, and his own close relations with Subori is a method of using a knife to cut into the surface membrane specialist craftsmen who used carving to decorate metal sword-fittings. of hardened lacquer. There are examples of its use before Zeshin’s However, we still have to ask ourselves what deeper impulses might have time and even in his lifetime it was not known as subori; the term, persuaded him to turn to carving. At the very last stage of the lengthy, which literally means ‘plain carving’, emerged later in order to make a inescapable process of applying and polishing multiple layers of lacquer, distinction between this technique and chinkinbori, in which a design he undertook the supremely difficult task—allowing absolutely no margin is cut into the lacquered surface, wet lacquer is applied to the incised for error—of applying a blade to the hardened membrane. Perhaps he lines, and then gold leaf is pressed into them. In subori, by contrast, needed to turn to this impromptu, powerful mode of expression as a kind the marks of the knife are left just as they are. of ceremonial way of breathing life into his artistic creations. Zeshin’s chōkoku, or ‘sculpture’, includes integral three-dimensional relief Like Zeshin, I too adore subori and have become a total slave to his use carving or separately carved pieces applied to a surface; the term might of the technique. When he carved his signature in katakiri-bori he could typically refer to a wood netsuke to which lacquer is applied after it has make it look exactly as though it had been drawn with a brush, with been carved. Examples of this kind of work in Zeshin’s oeuvre include a the same variation of thick and thin lines, even though carving requires wooden suzuri (ink stone) carved in the form of a branch of plum, inside the order of the individual strokes to be completely different from that a Writing Box with Autumn Grasses from my own collection (Nezu 2012, used when working in ink on paper.