Beschreibung:

MEIJI CRAFTS – A superb watercolor trade catalogue of Japanese artworks for Winckler & Co. Japan, late-19th century. Quarto (265 x 187mm). 1330 ink and watercolor drawings, many of which heightened with gold and silver, on 550 leaves of translucent Japanese paper, with manuscript identification numbers; J. Winckler company stamps at ends (isolated light spotting, otherwise remarkably well preserved). Stab-sewn leporello in original printed cloth boards (front board cracked but holding); in modern black box. Provenance : Rodolphe Chamonal. An exquisite and very extensive watercolor catalogue of the Japanese offerings of the Winckler Company. Not only an artistic gem in its own right, this work is a splendid embodiment of the contemporary Western fascination with Eastern art. Luminous watercolors depict a panoply of goods, including dolls, swords, skeletons, baskets, lacquers, reticulated bronzes, cloisonné items, umbrellas, vases, tables, chests, tea sets, fans, screens, flowers, dragons, and even Persian carpets—providing a glimpse of the elaborate and colorful world of Meiji crafts. Stunning pictorial effects are achieved by shaded monochrome with sprinklings of gold to indicate maki-e lacquer, while reticulated bronze objects are executed delicately all in gold. Many of its offerings reveal affinities with European impressionist and art nouveau style, on which they were a major influence. The end of Japanese isolation which came with the Meiji Restoration in 1868 allowed Western artists to fully indulge their urge for Japonisme . Painters like Degas, Klimt, Cassat, and, above all, Whistler were consumers and collectors of Japanese decorative arts and prints, whose style manifested in their own works and made a major impact on Western art. Jackob Winckler, the son of a German professor, had arrived in Yokohama only two years after the fall of the Tokugawa government. After first working for the German trading company Ahrens & Co, he founded his own business specializing in the applied arts. Offering something for every taste and species of adornment, his company was a such a success that he was represented in the 1894 Paris Exposition, giving Japanese style an even larger audience in fin-de-siècle Europe. After Winckler’s death the firm changed direction and began to specialize in machinery; it is still in existence in Japan today.