Japanese Works of Art

How a chance purchase of a print in a Liverpool junk shop sparked an extensive collection

French capital follows the examples of New York and London for a dedicated week of events

Koller will hold a three-session sale of Asian art in its Zurich rooms on June 1.

Translating simply as ‘a box with drawers’ but so much more exotic than that, a rare Spanish Renaissance caja con cajones was the outstanding lot at Bearnes Hampton & Littlewood’s (25% buyer’s premium) quarterly fine art sale in Exeter.

The Bizen ware of Kaneshige Tōyō (1896-1967) and the Hagi ware of Miwa Kyūwa (1895-1981) star at 'Branching Out', an exhibition at Joan B Mirviss of New York.

The sale of Japanese works of art at Woolley & Wallis on the morning of May 17 is led by this 8in (20cm) high silvered bronze okimono of a cockatoo.

McTear’s in Glasgow conducts an Asian Art sale on June 10 where a set of 11 Satsuma plates is guided at £1000-2000.

Bonhams holds a sale titled Polish and Poise: Japanese Art Through the Centuries sale at New Bond Street on May 12.

Many of the Asian sales in the US held over recent weeks took place in New York as part of its Asia week celebrations but auctions were also staged in other cities.

During the Meiji period, the Kyoto artist and entrepreneur Nishimura Sozaemon (1855-1935) used Western mechanised weaving techniques to develop new styles of Japanese decorative textiles.

Rare Japanese Meiji gold coin emerges at auction in West Sussex

Japanese antique ivories have been gradually disappearing from the catalogues of prominent dealers and major auction houses but good examples are still being sold in the regions.

Early Japanese porcelain models of animals are very rare, and this elephant form koro, c.1700, offered for sale as part of the Woolley & Wallis (25/12% buyer’s premium) Japanese works of art sale appears to be unrecorded.

This Japanese cloisonné casket bears the mark for the Ando Company of Nagoya.

Estimated at £40,000-60,000, a lacquer cabinet from Edo period Japan sold for £105,000 at Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury on November 23.

This 7½in (19cm) Japanese wood netsuke shows the standing figure of Ashinaga with his arms outstretched.

Once again the UK auction market gears up for the biggest of its two annual Asian art seasons.