Noshigami. A sample book of Noshigami - special paper for gifts - from the Kadoya Dyeing Workshop, Tokyo. Tokyo [1920s?]. 24x18cm, home made printed stiff wrappers; 105 leaves of colour printed samples on different kinds of paper, various sizes. Au$400
Noshi-gami is specially printed paper to be folded and attached to gifts as I understand it. The ineluctable beauty of some patterns is enhancedher, I say, by being in a quite smart cover decorated with locomotives.
Catalogue - beds. A.F. Melendes. Album No. 5 1923. Lits Fer & Cuivre & Cuivre. Clichy la Garenne 1923. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper; 24pp including covers, two-colour illustrations throughout. A couple of short tears, a nice copy. Four page price list for October 1923 loosely inserted. Au$100
A good array of traditional and modern iron and brass beds, the traditional are more successful.
Catalogue - Fashion. Ribby. Paris. Ribby 1923 - 1924. Paris 1923. Largish octavo printed wrapper (dusty and a bit marked); 16pp, illustrated throughout, the first page colour. A bit used but very decent. Au$80
Smart autumn and winter outfits for men and women, casual and formal.
Catalogue - hats. Watanabe, Tokyo. The Watanabe's Catalogue : Full fashioned and hand finished. Y. Watanabe & Co., Nihonbashi, Tokyo, Japan. Tokyo, [1924]. 23x15cm colour illustrated publisher's wrapper; 6pp, profusely illustrated with photo illustrations. An old fold, small stains. Au$150
72 models of hats for men and women; not just women, mogas - modern girls - jazz age women. So, flappers and cool, sinister men; the stuff of dreams. Mention is made of the first anniversary of the 1923 earthquake but the "New Fashion 1924" on the front cover is an even better guide to its date.
HOPKINS, Henry Powell. Sources of Memorial Ornamentation. Vermont Marble Company 1924. Quarto, very good in publisher's gilt decorated boards, cloth spine; 44pp, 14 plates. Au$75
Something of a trade catalogue:- a primer of the basic styles - Egyptian, Greek, Roman, Celtic, Gothic and Colonial - with suggestions for their application to modern gravestones.
FLADER, Louis [ed]. Achievement in Photo-Engraving and Letter Press Printing, 1927. Chicago, American Photo-Engravers Association 1927. Thick quarto moulded mock leather; hundreds of plates in colour and black and white, some embossed, on a variety of papers. Signs of use but nothing drastic. Au$350
American commercial printing and graphic art at its peak; a self composed hymn to photo-engraving, which gave birth to advertising art according to the prefatory note. And much like virgin mothers, photo-engraving was soon to be ancient history.
Catalogue - musical instruments. Beare & Son. London. Beare & Son 1927 Nett Wholesale Export Catalogue. London, Beare 1927. Quarto old binders cloth (rubbed); 162pp, illustrated throughout including 10 colour plates of violins. Library marks inside front cover, used but solid and decent. Au$200
Beare & Son still exist as dealers in stringed instruments but in their heyday - like 1927 - they flooded the dominions with low to medium price instruments of every kind. Many were made for Beare under various house brands or their own, so for those wondering about that ancient Francois Barzoni violin this catalogue will tell you that it was made for Beare by some anonymous maker in the 1920s. Their range covers accordeons to zither banjos, fittings and accessories and includes quite a few jazz instruments.
Hotels. The Stevens. The World's Greatest Hotel. Chicago. Chicago, the company [1927]. Quarto publisher's printed wrapper; 32pp, profusely illustrated. Au$75
A celebratory promotion marking the opening of this massive and opulent pile. Built at a cost of over thirty million dollars, as proclaimed in the first sentence, the building still exists but the Stevens family went up in smoke wihin five years. By 1932 the hotel was bankrupt and the trio of father and two sons were soon after indicted for financial corruption. The father had a permanently crippling stroke, the elder son blew his brains out and the younger went to prison.
[Catalogue - Engraved stamps]. J. Augey, Saint-Claude. 1928. Maison Speciale pour tous Articles Graves. The company 1928. Octavo printed wrapper; 64pp, numerous illustrations. Au$90
An appealing catalogue of engraved metal, wood and rubber stamps - going well beyond mere date stamps (though many of these are quite handsome): trade marks, facsimile signatures and so on. As well are engraved and enamelled plaques and plaques for tombs with permanent photographs incorporated.
Catalogue - bicycles. Nishiura Shoten. [Nishiura Shoho]. Tokyo, Nishiura 1930 (Showa 5). 23x15cm publisher's printed wrapper; 48pp, illustrated throughout. Some signs of use, pretty good. Au$150
From a carrier motor tricycle to a kid's tricycle with everything in between.
Catalogue - watches. Yoshida Watch Company. ... Fancy Smart ... Yoshida Watch Company [from the cover]. [Tokyo? 193-?]. 15x22cm publisher's illustrated wrapper; 18pp, illustrated throughout. Pencil inscription on the front, staples disintegrated but rather good with a couple of special offer inserts and a four page illustrated clock leaflet dated 1929 inserted. Au$150
There were two Yoshida watch companies in Tokyo at this time. One, founded in 1920, still exists as a high class salon in Shibuya, and the other, which began as a wholesaler in 1901 started manufacturing watches in the 1930s. They morphed over the decades into Orient watches, a subsidiary of Seiko. This seems the more likely if we have to choose between the two. One inserted slip offers a 50% wholesale discount.
Quite smart, a lot of deco, mostly for men with a few women's watches at the end. A couple of these seem very expensive: 370 yen against a man's watch for less than 20 yen.
Hikifuda. ... [Wayo Sake Kakushu ... Amari Eitaro Shoten]. n.p. [c1930?]. Colour lithograph 26x38cm. Quite good. Au$300
These blooming infants are scampering into battle for Japanese and foreign liquors. These hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were often produced with a blank text panel and the customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed. The patriotic youngsters may well advertise something more suitable on other examples.
Fusuma design album. [Kimigayo Shirushi Ofusumashu]. n.p. [193-?]. 29x23cm publisher's cloth with paper label; 34 card leaves with colour patterns, mostly double page. At the end are two cloth samples with designs from the album in different colours. One small mounted stripe sample might be missing. Au$600
This is volume six of a series of catalogues cum pattern books of fusuma - paper for sliding screens. Since I can't find a mention of any other copies I have no clue how many there were, nor whether they appeared over a number of years. Kimigayo is the national anthem - the range or the maker's name I don't know.
Fusuma catalogues are usually pretty blah; postwar catalogues should be avoided by all but sturdy cultural archaeologists. Seems makers didn't have a high opinion of the tastes of someone who would buy their screens ready made. This one is the only exception I've seen so far. Some is bland but a lot is high class and chic in the neo-neo-rimpa style, ie the reworking of tasteful luxurious antiquity inspired by the turn of the century work of neo-rimpa designers like Korin, Sekka, Nosaburo et al.
The printing is outstanding and as usual with such stuff, hard to photograph: the aged gold and silver, heavy raised textures, overprinting, embosssing ... need to be seen in the right light. Very Kyoto and far from the brazen tizz of Tokyo and Osaka. Until we find, at the very end, the stamp of the Yamaguchi Hyoguten of Shibuya, Tokyo. Hyoguten usually translates as mounting store - a business that makes scrolls, screens and sliding screens. There are now Yamaguchi Hyoguten everywhere except Shibuya it seems. I don't know whether any of them are related. Still, I insist the desig n and printing belong to Kyoto.
Catalogue - Photo albums. Seiundo Co. Tokyo. Catalogue of Album. Tokyo [193-?]. 16x10.5cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper with metal pin; 18 leaves printed one side, b/w photo illustrations. Au$50
A neat little catalogue of photo and other albums in a varitey of styles, available in different sizes. Japan was by the thirties camera crazy as well having a large population of avid ephemera collectors. A good time to be in the album business.
Wine Labels - Sample Book. Myncke Freres, Brussels. The printer's sample album of wine labels by Myncke Freres of Brussels. n.p. 1930s. Oblong quarto (230x315mm) flexible linen album with some 220 lithograph labels plus some neck labels and vintage dates (ranging from 1915 to 1937) mounted on both sides of 31 leaves. Nothing removed and all in great shape. Au$400
This is an album to be shown to clients rather than a scrap book. There are numbers of labels for specific wineries and appellations, numbers more are for generic varieties or, in some case, unlettered altogether. All are signed Litho Myncke or initialled LM or MF.
The Mynckes seem to have made something of a specialty of wine - a rummage round the internet finds a couple of large posters for champagne - and this album shows they had a fair reach across western Europe - France, Belgium, into Germany and includes some Port labels in English. The styles also range around, from the classic and restrained (it's hard to beat a modicum of gold on glazed midnight blue) to vibrantly modern to garish kitsch.
Advertising fan sample books. + [Yubi Uchiwa Mihon Jo] + [Yubi Uchiwa Shin Gacho] + six actual advertising uchiwa - fans. n.p. c1930. The first: 23x25cm publisher's colour illustrated wrappers, ribbon tied; title leaf, 81 leaves (four of these form two designs with one of each being a layer with cutouts over the other). Covers ragged, a few leaves with closed tears near the beginning; the album has been damp at some time and colours drifted to nearby leaves in places but all acceptable enough. The second: 25x25cm colour printed wrapper; ribbon tied; 42 leaves. Used and well thumbed but solid and decent enough. The fans each about 40cm top to tail. Au$2100
Two (but not a pair) of these rare sample books of elegant (yubi translates as elegant) uchiwa - non folding fans - used for advertising; messages were on the back. Now, pattern books of properly elegant fan designs have a long history and are a dime, well, a few thousand dollars, a dozen. It would be hard to get together a dozen of these crass commercial sample books, for much the same reasons as their sister hikifuda books: any that did survive are usually dismembered and sold page by page.
The accompanying fans do not actually appear in either book but that is a matter of variation on a theme. The family likeness is unmistakable. As is the likeness to hikifuda (large handbills or small posters) of the period: the artwork, printing and colours come from the same people. The designs range from revolting to most smart. Luckily few are truly revolting.
Catalogue - fire engines. Nihon shobo-ki seizo kabushikigaisha. [Nihonshiki Shobo Ponpu]. The company 1932 (Showa 7). 26x19cm publisher's illustrated wrapper; 9 leaves printed on one side, photo illustrations. A chomp from the top edge. Au$150
A catalogue of proper fire engines. This is when the last fireman down the pole, struggling into his boots, tenaciously grips the last rung of the ladder as he flaps like a flag behind the speeding engine. There is as well as the standard engines, a nifty little run-about, a motor trike and some handy accessories.
Seems not much survives of the Japan Firefighting Machinery Co now but a few small pumps and a much prized three wheeler in fire museums. I found none of their catalogues in any library.
Okamoto Ippei. [Katei wo Akarumi he]. Tokyo, Nisshin Seimei Hoken [c1932]. 13x19cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; 16pp with eight colour illustrations by Ippei, some small photo illustrations. A nice copy. Au$200
A fun booklet advertising the benefits of insurance from the company, Nisshin Seimei Hoken (Nissin Life Insurance), illustrated by master illustrator/manga artist, radical and scallywag Okamoto Ippei.
Catalogue - bicycles. Leonard Gundle Motor Co. Carrier Cycles [cover title]. Birmingham [c1936]. 15x23cm publisher's printed wrapper with split pins; 29 illustrated sheets printed on one side, numbered to 25 with a couple of gaps and some bis and clearly complete. Rather good in a ragged but complete printed envelope postmarked February 1936 and addressed to a Birmingham recipient. Au$100
Working bikes for the most part - milk floats and ice cream carts are the most elaborate - with carriers and fittings for all trades needing to shift things with pedal power.
Cassandre. Catalogue - wine. Establissements Nicolas. Liste des Grands Vins Fins 1936. Paris, Nicolas (printed by Draeger) [1936]. Small quarto publisher's colour illustrated wrapper, plastic spiral bound; 54pp including endpapers, some double folded leaves carry four page numbers, Design, decorations decorations and typography by Cassandre. Corner bumped. Au$110
The wine merchants of wine merchants, Nicolas, produced these catalogues of their great wines annually from 1927 to 1973. 1936 is more extensive and stately than its immediate neighbours.
Catalogue - magic. Green Frog. Magician's Handbook ... catalogue of "Green Frog" magical conjuring stage and pocket tricks. n.p. [Sydney?] 1939. Single sheet folded to form four pages largish octavo by size, outer pages with red and green illustrations, inside printed in black. Au$35
A flyer to promote Green Frog tricks and their catalogue, a sample page inside and some hints and tips. Naturally this is better printed on better paper than the actual catalogue.
Superhero tulip comic. Bulb Magic! NY, Custom Comics for the Associated Bulb Growers of Holland [1956]. 19x13cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; 16pp; comic strip in colour. Au$30
Forget Captain America and Superman. What did they ever do for the American suburb? We lose little time in exposition: on page one Tom and Bob meet on the homeward bound 5.04 and Bob is flummoxed to find Tom has sold his house at asking price while he, Bob, hasn't had a nibble for his, the same model. Not entirely the same, Tom explains, his bulb plantings "sure did increase the value!" So we learn how bulbs produced a colorful miracle for Tom and can do the same for us. Did Batman ever increase your property value? Worldcat finds two copies but one of those can't be verified.
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