Hikifuda specimen book. - A publisher's sample book of specimen hikifuda.

n.p. (Osaka?) 190-? 26x39cm; later makeshift card binding that appears to be from a printer; 76 colour lithographs. Definite signs of use, occasional tears but nothing too serious. ¶ These are rare. Specimen hikifuda do float around but this is because busy fingers have dismembered every sample book they can find. Here series and numbers are stamped on the back but are not consistent; still I found only three places where offsetting shows that a sample is missing, including the first plate.Hikifuda - small posters or handbills - were usually produced with the text panel blank. The customer, usually a retailer, had their own details over printed, so the same image might sell fine silk or soy sauce.From what I can see, if you wanted fine, delicate printing you went to Kyoto; if you wanted commercial publishing on a huge scale you went to Tokyo; and if you wanted brash, vivid to the point of lurid, advertising you went to Osaka. This particular set is marked by the bold and busy colours, strongly marked borders, ornate design and occasional extra embossing. More expensive series than standard? I would have guessed most to be earlier but I found two dates: 1911 and 1915, and the aeroplanes are a give away.

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Prices are in Australian dollars, post extra. Payment can be made by cheque, Mastercard or Visa. Cheques in other currencies must be at the agreed rate of exchange with $20 added for bank charges. All books are guaranteed against any disappointment. All books in original cloth or boards unless otherwise stated, likewise all books can be assumed to be original printings unless otherwise stated. Unless otherwise described all books can be assumed to be in good (in the proper sense) condition.