The biggest, the best and theoretically the final volume in Sydney L. Moss gallery's trilogy of superior netsuke publications, regarded by some authorities as the finest offering of select netsuke in living memory. Over 300 colour photographs of consistently excellent works. More
A comprehensive survey of the major schools and masters in 66 fine examples, this catalogue is an indication of the developing serious interest in netsuke. Several full-colour photographs of each work, taken from every useful angle, accompany educative and entertaining text. More
Amongst the netsuke in this catalogue are many 18th-century rarities, including several large, mostly anonymous, figures in ivory and wood from Japanese legend, as well as important examples by Tametaka, Koyoken Yoshinaga, Tomotada and Masanao of Kyoto. Amongst masterpieces from the 19th century are four Otoman, two Ikkyu and a Tomokazu group of three rats. There are 17 ojime in various materials, many of them signed; pipecases of rare quality; some unusual spectacle cases; and inro in laquer and metal. The catalogue is rounded off by five extraordinary lacquer boxes by Ritsuo, the others by Koami Choko, Koma Kyuhaku and Oyama. More
This book examines how with the Japanese craftsman's intuitive sense of aesthetics and design the tsuba's utilitarian origins reached into the realms of fine art. The collection paints a picture of the Japanese tsubako, successfully representing both classic and everyday tsuba and fittings, work of the exacting levels demanded by the Daimyo and their samurai. More
Literati material finds its way into parts of the brain which regular works of antiquity cannot reach; the convoluted twists of cunning poetic allusions, themselves referring back and further back, to old writings, inscriptions on stone, legendary heroes and their mottoes, and not infrequent misquotes, can catch the unwary seeker after meaning in their complex web, causing him to lose all sense of afternoons and sometimes days. While one can admire Chinese literati works for their purely visual appeal and intimate, personable presence, it is their literary content that renders them so endlessly individual and subjective of interpretation. More
The extensively researched, in-depth, full-colour catalogue features a painstaking selection of 19 paintings and 47 'literati-taste' objects. The emphasis of all of them is on the extraordinary range of Chinese figural representation, with its tendency to humanize divine images and idealize secular figures, so that they meet somewhere in the middle as 'informal icons'. More
A selection of the finest works from the well-known Willi G. Bosshard collection, the one hundred netsuke are extraordinarily strong in Kyoto school animals, particularly rats and tigers, of which there must surely be enough masterpieces for anyone at all interested. Works by Masanao, Tomotada, Okatomo and virtually every worthwhile follower form a richly varied, comprehensive overview of the period from the mid to late 18th century and of the repertoire of subjects. More
The third and last in the series of catalogues and exhibitions on the endlessly diverse subject of artworks which reflect the culture of the Chinese scholar class and some of the individuals who comprised it. It follows on the heels of Documentary Chinese Works of Art in Scholars' Taste and Emperor Scholar Artisan Monk. Over 160 fine examples of painting, calligraphy and desk or scholastic objects, dating from the 15th to the 20th century, are presented with colour photographs and detailed, educative entries. More
There is an excitement to eccentric netsuke, and a dimension of an artistic personality and vision which raises these creations from the level of craft to art. The simple fact is that individual, experimental netsuke are much more difficult to understand than identifiable hack work – even great hack work – and are therefore much more gratifying when one does understand them. More
Literati painting of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties was created in, essentially, four forms: hanging scrolls, handscrolls, albums and fans. Many of the leading artists, both calligraphers and painters, set out to produce their most important and extensive works in the almost infinitely expandable linear format of the handscroll. However, it is in the smaller formats that the subtleties of literati brushwork are better appreciated and discerned. Many painters did their best work in the small, intimate formats of fan and album painting. More