Live auction - Lot 767
Seirô bijin awase sugata kagami: haru, natsu, aki, fuyu [Mirror of Forms of Fair Women of the Green Houses: spring, summer, autumn, winter].
KITAO SHIGEMASA; KATSUKAWA SHUNSHÔ
Hammer price: €
180
€ 170 / 200
Live bidding (Drouot*) Live bidding (Invaluable*)Bidding is closed
Lot description
Tokyo, Fuzoku emaki zuga konkokai, 1916
3 vol., 30,4 x 21 cm. Vol. I: spring and summer: 44 pp., 39 pp. ink and colour ill. Vol. II: autumn and winter: 48 pp., 47 pp. ink and colour ill. Vol. III: 27 pp. text, 7 pp. ink and colour ill.
Four-hole binding, book covers with title slip, in cloth wrapped case with floral patterns (closing elements lost).
Later edition of one of "the finest of all [Japanese] color-printed picture-books" (Hillier), originally published: Edo: An’ei (1776). A Mirror of the Forms of Rival Beauties of the Green Houses is a behind-the-scenes study of geisha life, the "crowning achievement in books" of ukiyo-e artists Shigemasa (1739-1820) and Shunsho (1726-1793).