SOTHEBY & CO. - Highly Important Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books, Drawings, Fan Paintings and Paintings from the Henri Vever Collection (Part I, II, III and and Final Part - Complete 4 Volumes)

Sotheby & Co. 0. Hardcover, with dust jacket. Book, English text.; Hardcover (with dust jacket):;22.5 x 30.5 cm.; 6.3 kg.; Used with signs of wear. Volume 1, shows edge wear on the dust jacket, two tears at the top of the spine and some wear marks throughout. The interior is in good condition overall, except for a previous owner name and date written with a pen on front free endpaper. Price list loosely inserted.; Volume 2, the dust jacket shows edge wear, a tear on top left side and at the top of the spine, some chipping at the edge right of the front cover, tiny hole at the bottom of the spine, and some minor wear marks and scratches throughout. Interior in good condition. Includes loosely inserted price list.; Volume 3, the dust jacket show edge wear and a few wear marks and scratches throughout. Interior in very good condition. Lot estimate list loosely inserted.; Volume 4, the dust jacket shows edge wear, and a small tear on the left side of the front cover and other on the left side of the back cover. Interior in very good condition. Price list loosely inserted.; Part I - Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books and Drawings held on the 26th March 1974, 412 lots in 382 pages with black and white and colour illustrations.; Part II - Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books, Drawings and Fan Paintings, held on 26th of March 1975, 410 lots in 442 pages with black and white and colour illustrations.; Part III - Japanese Prints, Illustrated Books, Drawings and Paintings held on 24th March 1977 with 415 lots in 208 pages with black and white illustrations; Final Part - Japanese Prints held on 30 October 1997 with 197 lots in 213 pages with colour illustrations.;"Henri Vever was among the earliest Europeans to succumb to the lure of Japan, and one of the leaders of the new fashion in collecting. He displayed all the perfervid infatuation that characterised those first acolytes of Japonism, mostly Parisians, amateurs whose taste and enthusiasm established Japanese art, for the first time in the west, as an artistic force. Those were, of course, halcyon days for the collectors of Japanese prints. Wakai and his young assistant Hayashi, who later opened an establishment in Paris, were scouring their country for prints at a time when the Japanese themselves had no feeling for them, and many of the prints we consider the finest passed from them to the early and privileged enthusiasts. A considerable number of such prints remained in Vever's hands until his death, and it is a stirring thought that this auction includes prints like the superb Toyonobu benizuri-e No. 32 and the Eiri mica-ground No. 245. brought first from Japan almost a century ago and completely unknown to the present generation of students and collectors. With such rareties are impressions of prints long acknowledged as masterpieces of the Japanese print, too numerous to single out. The original drawings by Sharaku and Hokusai are also of the utmost importance. Two of the Sharaku drawings have been 'lost' since they were recorded in the Barboutau sale catalogue of 1904; the third is the sole survivor of a series of ten, the other nine of which were destroyed in the 1923 Tokyo earthquake disaster. The Hokusai drawings include one of his most famous studies, known as 'The Rape', and preliminary sketches for the 'One Hundred Views of Fuji', the best-known of his picture-books." excerpt from the Part I introduction, 1974.; "At the time of the first sale at Sotheby's of the Vever collection in 1974, the owners elected to keep around 200 of the finest and/or rarest prints, their dispersal to be decided at a later date. These prints, subsequently illustrated with the remainder of the collection in Jack Hillier's three volume book on the collection, have been lying dormant since that time, seen only by a few scholars. It is this selection which is now offered for sale." excerpt from the Final Part introduction, 1997. Good/Dust Jacket Included.

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