Asian Antiques: 2012

Sunday 22 July 2012

Antique Canes

Antique Canes Biography.
   Antique canes, walking sticks and umbrellas have long been a passion of mine and I offer a large selection dating from 1650 to 1950. These are not perambulatory aids, but items of fashion, individuality, power, status and profession.
   A cane was designed to be worn rather than used. It showed who you were and how you viewed yourself. Whether you sported a jewelled Fabergé cane or one of whalebone fashioned by a sailor on a long sea voyage, your cane made a powerful statement. Consequently, these items are intensely personal. Each cane is redolent with the history of bygone individuals and their times.

Antique Canes

Geoffrey Breeze of Geoffrey Breeze Antique Canes

Antique Canes
Antique Cane Sword and Camillus Knife

Hokusai Prints

Hokusai Prints Biography.

Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎?, ?October 31, 1760 – May 10, 1849)[1] was a Japanese artist, ukiyo-e painter and printmaker of the Edo period. He was influenced by such painters as Sesshu, and other styles of Chinese painting.[2] Born in Edo (now Tokyo), Hokusai is best known as author of the woodblock print series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (富嶽三十六景 Fugaku Sanjūroku-kei?, c. 1831) which includes the internationally recognized print, The Great Wave off Kanagawa, created during the 1820s.

Hokusai created the "Thirty-Six Views" both as a response to a domestic travel boom and as part of a personal obsession with Mount Fuji.[3] It was this series, specifically The Great Wave print and Fuji in Clear Weather, that secured Hokusai’s fame both in Japan and overseas. As historian Richard Lane concludes, "Indeed, if there is one work that made Hokusai's name, both in Japan and abroad, it must be this monumental print-series...".[4] While Hokusai's work prior to this series is certainly important, it was not until this series that he gained broad recognition and left a lasting impact on the art world. It was also The Great Wave print that initially received, and continues to receive, acclaim and popularity in the Western world.

Hokusai Prints

Hokusai and Hiroshige: Great Japanese Prints

Hokusai Prints
36 Views of Mount Fuji - Hokusai

Kawase Hasui

Kawase Hasui Biography.

Although Hasui is not well known in Japan, he is famous abroad. Hokusai, Hiroshige and Hasui are the three greatest woodblock print artists of Japan ..." (Narazaki Muneshige in the 1950s)

Kawase Hasui is one the great masters of the Shin Hanga movement. Shortly before his death, his art work was declared a Living National Treasure by the Japanese government.

Kawase Hasui

Woodblock prints by Kawase Hasui

Saturday 21 July 2012

Woodblock Print

Woodblock Print Biography.

The wood block is carefully prepared as a relief matrix, which means the areas to show 'white' are cut away with a knife, chisel, or sandpaper leaving the characters or image to show in 'black' at the original surface level. The block was cut along the grain of the wood. It is only necessary to ink the block and bring it into firm and even contact with the paper or cloth to achieve an acceptable print. The content would of course print "in reverse" or mirror-image, a further complication when text was involved. The art of carving the woodcut is technically known as xylography, though the term is rarely used in English.

For colour printing, multiple blocks are used, each for one colour, although overprinting two colours may produce further colours on the print. Multiple colours can be printed by keying the paper to a frame around the woodblocks.

Woodblock Print

Woodcut Printing

Woodblock Print

Reduction Woodblock Printing

Hiroshi Yoshida

Hiroshi Yoshida Biography.

Hiroshi Yoshida (born Hiroshi Ueda) was born in the city of Kurume, Fukuoka, in Kyushu, on September 19, 1876.[1] He showed an early aptitude for art fostered by his adoptive father, a teacher of painting in the public schools. At age 19 he was sent to Kyoto to study under Tamura Shoryu, a well known teacher of western style painting. He then studied under Koyama Shotaro, in Tokyo, for another three years.

In 1899, Yoshida had his first American exhibition at Detroit Museum of Art (now Detroit Institute of Art). He then traveled to Boston, Washington, D.C., Providence and Europe. In 1920, Yoshida presented his first woodcut at the Watanabe Print Workshop, organized by Watanabe Shōzaburō (1885-1962), publisher and advocate of the shin-hanga movement. However, Yoshida’s collaboration with Watanabe was short partly due to the Great Kanto earthquake on September 1, 1923.

Hiroshi Yoshida

Woodblock prints by Hiroshi Yoshida

Hiroshi Yoshida

HIROSHI YOSHIDA TOUR 2012

Japanese Soaking Tubs

Japanese Soaking Tubs Biography.

Japanese culture has always been very rich in traditions and customs. If you take a closer look into the history of Japanese culture, you would come to know that they have always given bathing special importance as bathing is a significant and important part of that same history. Bathing was looked upon as an important ritual in Buddhist cleansing traditions which featured special types of tubs in which these rituals were performed in. As time passed by, these special kinds of deep soaking bathtubs became immensely popular around the world, regardless of their religious affiliation. So, what makes them so exciting and popular? Read on.

The first thing that you will notice when you see Japanese bathtubs is that they are smaller in size than the types Westerners associate a bath tub with. The most unique features is that there are seats made in them for you to sit on. Although these bath tubs may resemble a large barrel, its the design that helps your body soaking as you sit comfortably with water coming up to your neck. Try soaking your entire body in a traditional tub! You’ll find that these types of tubs are much deeper than the one you associate non-Japanese bath tubs having. Since these bathtubs are much deeper than normal, you can soak your body fully, which easily gives them the edge if you are looking for a bathtub to soak away your worries in.

Japanese Soaking Tubs

Japanese shower/bath tub combo

Japanese Soaking Tubs

Heart of Japan: Bath Culture

1850s Fashion

1850s Fashion Biography.

In the 1850s, the domed skirts of the 1840s continued to expand. Skirts were made fuller by means of flounces (deep ruffles), usually in tiers of three, gathered tightly at the top and stiffened with horsehair braid at the bottom.

Early in the decade, bodices of morning dresses featured panels over the shoulder that were gathered into a blunt point at the slightly dropped waist. These bodices generally fastened in back by means of hooks and eyes, but a new fashion for a [jacket] bodice appeared as well, buttoned in front and worn over a chemisette. Wider bell-shaped or pagoda sleeves were worn over false undersleeves or engageantes of cotton or linen, trimmed in lace, broderie anglaise, or other fancy-work. Separate small collars of lace, tatting, or crochet-work were worn with morning dresses, sometimes with a ribbon bow.

Evening gowns were very low-necked, falling off the shoulders, and had short sleeves.

The introduction of the steel cage crinoline in 1856 provided a means for expanding the skirt still further, and flounces gradually disappeared in favor of a skirt lying more smoothly over the petticoat and hoops. Pantalettes were essential under this new fashion for modesty's sake.

1850s Fashion

Cage crinoline balldresses from 1850´s and 1860's

1850s Fashion
The Fashion Research Series: The 1850's Fashion Collection