Home
Shopping cart (0 items € 0)
Go Back

Beautiful, detailed and accurate Japanese colour drawings, mostly botanical, on 85 double-page spreads

KEIEN.
Kengyu-ka shasei [= Morning glory sketches].
Japan, Meiji 31?, 34-36 [=1898?, 1901-1903]. Very large 8vo? (28 x 20.5 cm). With 85 double-page (mostly botanical) drawings in black ink on Japanese paper, each showing 1, 2 or 3 figures, sometimes with additional detail drawings, nearly all coloured in watercolour and/or gouache and most with captions identifying the subject and/or giving the date. Front wrapper with the title in Japanese in black ink. Wrapper-title plus [85] double-page spreads.
€ 6,500
A set of excellent Japanese drawings on Japanese paper, nearly all in colour, the dated ones mostly from 1901 to 1903, though one apparently 1898. Most show flowers, but some also or instead show fruits, vegetables, berries, roots, tree branches, grasses, etc., all in a consistent style and format and botanically accurate. One includes a butterfly, four show birds or feathers in great detail (with or without flowers) and one shows three kubi furi tora (bobbing-head tigers) that would have been carved out of wood or made of papier maché and then painted. Most double-page spreads are clearly planned as a single composition, sometimes with one large drawing across both pages and sometimes with three drawings with the centre one across the fold, but some have two drawings, one on the right page and one on the left page. Some also have additional detail drawings. Although the title calls the collection morning glory sketches, other flowers are just as frequent and prominent. Flowers shown include camellia, cherry, hibiscus, crocosmia, narcissus, peony, iris and many more. In addition to flowers, the botanical drawings include bananas, sweet potato, melon, bamboo shoots, ginger, saffron, some sort of cabbage, peas(?) growing in a pot and others. Three double-page spreads contain very fine drawings of birds and another of bird feathers (including a peacock feather).
A prominent artist adopted the pen-name Keien in the 19th century and after his 1880 death some others used the same name.
Lacking 1 leaf (the right half of double-page spread 31), with the loss of one whole figure and part of another. The paste has often discoloured the paper along the fold, some bifolia are torn along the fold and there is an occasional minor marginal defect, but the drawings are otherwise in very good condition. The back wrapper is lacking, the front wrapper damaged, the spine has been reinforced with plain paper and some bifolia have come loose from their neighbours. A stunning set of beautiful and accurate Japanese colour drawings, mostly botanical.
Order Inquire Terms of sale

Related Subjects:

Art, architecture & photography  >  Drawings, Prints & Watercolours
Asia  >  Drawings, Prints & Watercolours | Japan & Far East | Natural History
Natural history  >  Drawings, Prints & Watercolours | Floras & Flowering Plants | Horticulture & Forestry