Manga. 人生漫画帖 [Jinsei Mangacho]. Tokyo, Kodansha 1932 (Showa 7). 20x14cm publisher's colour printed cream cloth and colour printed slipcase; 330pp and publisher's advertisements; colour frontispiece. illustrated throughout, the first 32 pages in red and black, the rest in black. Spine a touch browned, edges and case a bit more so; a remarkably good copy of a book born to be a grubby wreck. Au$300
First edition; jazz age manga for grown up kids by a gang of manga stars.
Kanai Naozo. 運動会 [Undokai]. Tokyo, Kanai Naozo 1929 (Showa 4). 19x27cm colour illustrated wrapper; 12pp including covers, colour illustration on every page. A nice copy. Au$175
Sports day; No. 117 in this particular series of picture books by Kanai. There seem to be several indistinguishable series or Kanai picked the numbers out of a hat. These are children who are putting all their effort into being decorative. I'd say the whole day passed in near silence, maybe the occasional gentle puff at the end of an extended pose. The books from the twenties and beginning of the thirties, though, are a lot less revolting than those of later years.
CAPEK, Karel & Suzuki Zentaro. R.U.R ロボット [R.U.R Robotto]. Tokyo, Kinseido 1924 (Taishi 13). 18x12cm publisher's illustrated wrapper; title page with Simonson's poster design for the New York production in red and black, photo frontispiece. A nice copy. Au$800
The introduction of 'robot' to the Japanese language and they've gone mad with it ever since. It isn't, however, the first published Japanese translation or adaptation of Capek's play: in 1923 that appeared titled Jinzo Ningen - artificial human - by Uga Itsuo. He seems to have been a haiku and theatre enthusiast who was working for a Japanese company in New York when the Theater Guild did their production. He has pretty much vanished from history except as a translator of RUR. And he deserves it, discarding what might be the most evocative word of our times.
I presumed Suzuki, a writer of greater consequence, produced his version as a reaction but it seems more a matter of zeitgeist. Suzuki went on a cultural world tour in 1920 and came back armed with Capek, Molnar, Eugene O'Neill, and who knows what other stage weapons. He wrote a long article on the play in 1923 and this translation predates the first production of Uga's version. It seems neither of them knew of the other's work.
Worldcat finds no copies of this outside Japan.
Shirase Nobu &c. 南極記 [Nankyokuki or Nankyoku-ki]. Tokyo, Nankyoku Tanken Koenkai 1913 (Taisho 2). 22x15cm publisher's(?) blue cloth with embossed crest in the back cover; 61 photo and four colour plates, mounted facsimile of a card from General Maresuke; folding map at the end. Minor signs of use, some expected browning, mostly adjacent to the plates, a couple of discrete library seals. sold
First edition, apparently a secondary binding; I'm positive this is a trade binding. The official account of the Japanese Antarctic expedition of 1910-12 taken from the diaries of Shirase and other records. This is distinct from Shirase's personal account published in 1913. One of Japan's heroes for some time, by the 1940's Shirase was forgotten, broke and hadn't long paid off his debts for the expedition. He died in 1946. Now of course he is celebrated in statue, stamps, ships, books and memorials.
CROWE, Catherine. The Night Side of Nature; or, ghosts & ghost seers. London, Routledge 1852-53. Two volumes small octavo, together in contemporary half calf (scuffed, hinges split and repaired inside by a fairly neat amateur). sold
Third edition; Crowe's preface suggests that additions have been made but it's not clear.
Hikifuda : NYK Line 伏木湊川ノキワ 水戸半右衛門 [Fushikiminato-gawa Nokiwa Mito Han Uemon]. n.p. [187-?]. 36x49cm colour woodcut. Bug chewed and carefully repaired, either some time ago or done using old paper. Au$200
This large and still quite handsome steamship advertises ships, routes and fares from Fushikiminato, now part of Takaoka City. Takaoka Museum illustrates their copy online and it is just as chomped as this one.
BROWN, Rev J.J. A Delineation of the Character, Talents, Physiological Developments and Natural Adaptions of M [Robt Fleischer]. Melbourne, Spectator Publishing 1928. Octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper; b/w illustrations and photo illustrations. Completed in pencil. Rather good. sold
Seventeenth Edition and an odd late resurgence of Melbourne phrenology: after fifteen editions of Ralph Brown's book in a decade or so and a lapse of twenty something years two editions of this appeared in the twenties. But. By J.J. Brown rather than Ralph. From what I can figure out J.J.'s - Rev Ralph's brother - name went on the now family business in about 1896 when Ralph hit the skids after a nasty bit of publicity involving a mesmerised teenager, and the land bust. The book and illustrations remain 1880s but the couple of added photos are thoroughly up to date. Woodrow Wilson was barely dead.
Mr Fleischer, who was measured and recorded in this copy, seems to have been underwhelmingly average at best. The suggested careers marked for him are not thrilling. He was never going to be a prelate or a renowned rapist.
Art Galleries. 小規模の美術館 [Shokibo no Bijutsukan]. Tokyo, Koyosha 1924 (Taisho 13). 19x13cm, loose as issued in publisher's printed boards; 50 leaves, mostly plates - one double page plate carries two numbers - printed on one side; renderings, elevations and plans. An outstanding copy. sold
One of the apparently endless series of small architecture monographs, Kenchiku Shashin Riuju. I wonder if anyone knows how many there were. Some are intriguing and some are pretty drab. Many require a dogged love of gateways and tea rooms. This one is up top. Here are the three winners and six honourable mentions in a competition for a small scale art museum, or gallery, for any new but ambitious city - and there were a lot of them.
Worldcat finds no copies outside Japan.
Takanashi Yoshitaro [ed]. 文化村の簡易住宅 [Bunkamura no Kan'i Jutaku]. Tokyo, Koyosha 1922 (Taisho 11). 19x15cm, publisher's stiff wrapper with mounted illustration; title, 19pp of text and 54 plates printed on one side: photo illustrations, floor plans and renderings, one double page. Some marks and minor signs of use. Au$300
Fourth printing, two months after the first, of this architectural guide to Japan's model Culture Village (Bunkamura) of 'simple' housing built for the 1922 Peace Exposition; the purposeful introduction of idealistic westernised homes, rather than mansions and commercial buildings. Western mostly on the outside, not so much inside. Fourteen houses were built by different builders that had to meet 15 guidelines which did not stipulate that the outside had to be western but did demand windows rather than shutters and paper screens and that decoration should be avoided. Living spaces had to be chair style and kitchens and bathrooms thoroughly up to date. After that it was up to the designers and builders and the results are what's usually called eclecticism, hybrid, or borrowing, but isn't so simple in intent. And, as usual, what was borrowed from the west was often a reclamation of what the west had borrowed from Japan: arts & crafts in England, craftsman in America, nouveau, seccesion, werkstatte, and whatever else in Europe.
At much the same time as this, across town another Bunkamura - the Mejiro Bunkamura development by Tsutsumi Yasujiro - was being launched, reportedly inspired by the streetscape of Beverly Hills. The houses in both villages were for the new middle classes but Tsutsumi's village was for the upper middle class. Much of what was built during the twenties was destroyed during the war but the remaining fragments show shared characteristics which I'd say, from the bit I've read about him, had nothing to with any idealism in Tsutsumi.
Shop architecture. 商店建築及店頭計画図案 [Shoten Kenchiku Oyobi Tento Keikaku Zuan]. Tokyo, Kenchikushoin 1924 (Taisho 13). Oblong folio, 26x39cm publisher's decorated cloth (a couple of nibbles) and mildly battered printed card case; [10]pp, 50 b/w plates, [4]pp. A nice copy. Au$1350
Modern and moderne shop buildings and store fronts; essential if you want to rebuild Tokyo after the earthquake and before the fire bombing. This is, of course, part of the post earthquake reconstruction effort: the results of a competition held by the equivalent of the Tokyo chamber of commerce. The plates, elevations and floor plans, are reproduced from measured drawings and look ready to build but I wonder about one (by Shibahara Niro) which, the facade at least, seems to be taken straight from Bruno Taut's crystal alpine architecture. The requirements: frontage, height etc, are spelt out in the introduction and I presume fit an average commercial lot. At the end are designs for shop fronts.
JEBB, Colonel [Joshua]. Report on the Discipline of the Convict Prisons ... 1854 - 1855. London, HMSO 1856. Largish octavo later, probably towards mid c20th, morocco, original printed wrappers bound in; folding table and eight folding plates: plans and elevations. Au$500
A mass of prison and prisoner detail and changes brought about by the abandonment of transportation but the real point of this is keeping up to date with the latest in prison architecture. The plates illustrate Jebb's new Chatham prison, under construction as this went to press.
Not such a success, Chatham. Maybe to do with it being a convict labour camp for dock construction but after its most famous moment, the riots of 1861, special measures had to be taken to stop convicts throwing themselves under carts to lose a limb and escape the place. The prison was shut down in 1892.
Advertising sugoroku. Metabolin. マングワ新兵器発明双六 [Manguwa Shin Heiki Hatsumei Sugoroku]. Osaka, Metabolin [193-?]. Colour game on card 26x39cm with original folds; advertising on the back in red and blue. This came as a sort of envelope, folded twice with a paper seal holding it together, unfolding to show the game on the inside. Several tape repairs. Au$300
Somewhere, sometime, I don't know when, someone decided that books, pictures, games and toys for tiny children should be simple to the point of idiocy, drably educative as socially prescribed, and starved of imagination. Our artist here has followed the simple line for a way but knew that the thing all toddlers are thrilled by is daring new inventions in weaponry.
This was some sort of gift or premium from the makers of Metabolin, a vitamin B1 supplement, nothing to do with the steroid Metabolin. Maybe you got it after swallowing a hundred tablets.
Naturally I can't find mention of another copy anywhere, not even in the Kitatama Pharmaceutical Association Mueum which has several games and paper toys.
新版 動物ポンチ雙六 [Shinpan Dobutsu Ponchi Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Tsunashima Kamekichi 1911 (Meiji 44). 49x67cm colour broadside. Rumpled with repairs to folds, still acceptable. Au$350
This is called a new edition of the Animal Punch Sugoroku but I don't know whether that means a new printing or a new version of an older game. I can't find a record of any version, including this one. In either case it does seem a bit old fashioned for 1911. 'Ponchi' outlived the original Japan Punch (1862 to 1887), was used in other titles and became more or less a generic term for cartoon social satire.
Kamekichi was a busy two generation publisher of prints that are politely described as tending towards the popular end of the cultural scale; ie cheap and lurid.
Hosokibara Seiki. 初夢双六 [Hatsuyume Sugoroku]. Tokyo, Shojo Gaho 1918 (Taisho 7). Colour broadside 47x64cm. Somewhat used with some small splits and repairs to folds; just acceptable. Au$100
The new year gift from the girl's magazine Shojo Gaho in which we can follow either of two sister's first dreams of the new year (hatsuyume). Both see some action but I prefer the blue sister's dream which at least has a lion and a flying car driven by a turtle.
Hosokibara, as well as being a busy and successful manga artist, pioneered manga studies with his 1924 history and pioneered the schism among manga artists: those who saw manga as a continuation of traditional Japanese humorous drawings and those who rejected the notion and insisted that manga was a new international graphic language.
Fuso Kan. 小学入門解 [Shogaku Nyumon Kai]. Tokyo, Manjukaku 1875 (Meiji 8). 22x15cm publisher's wrapper with title label (this fairly bugged chewed). colour wheel and folding colour chart, small illustrations and diagrams throughout. Used but pretty good for an old school book. sold
An introduction to elementary school studies. There are quite a few versions of Shogaku Nyumon under different titles, varying in subject, charm, interest and form.
Masuda Giheee. 新刻画学定木図解 [Shinkoku Gagaku Jogi Zukai]. Tokyo, Masuda Gihee 1893 (Meiji 26). 23x17cm publisher's wrapper with printed title label; illustrated throughout. Au$300
A slender but spiffy drawing manual which starts with an easy to make mannequin - a ruled diagram shows correct proportions for each part. A range of named dynamic warriors model turmoil in just about every period, some still women, through to a thoroughly western gentleman who might believe he is carrying a gladstone bag but is holding a woman's purse. But, as he is a gentleman he's likely holding it for a lady.
Japanese graphic design. Proof 1963 : Graphic Design for Practical Use. Tosho Printing Co. [1963?]. 24x26cm publisher's flexible printed card, plastic comb bound; 106pp and a sheet with cut outs to be placed over the colour chart at the end. Corners of two adjacent leaves have been clipped, one at the top and one at the bottom, not for any discernible reason. I first wondered whether this was part of the design but I'm sure it's not. Au$600
Industrial Jansenism on the outside and show printing and art on the inside. This is advanced, sharp edged sixties graphic design, sweeping away the suburban roccoco curlicues of the fifties and before the basement nouveau curlicues of psychedelia. Hip but not hippy. Artists include Manabe Hiroshi, Kiyohara Etsushi, Iwasaki Kenji, Matsunaga Kenichi, Nakagawa Keiji, Takasugi Jiro, and Sato Tomoshige, the colour chart by Katsui Mitsuo.
Tosho was no shrimp in 1963 and now seems a massive corporate slug despite having shed imagination, style, any sense of excitement, and other such encumbrances along the way. I base this near impartial judgment on a few minutes survey of their website.
Worldcat finds no entries, neither does NDL; Cinii finds one copy, in Nara.
HOLDEN, William C. History of the Colony of Natal, South Africa. London, Heylin 1855. Octavo modern half crushed morocco; four folding maps, four tinted lithographs, wood engraved illustration. Some light browning and spotting. sold
I had to buy this to get something I wanted. It's probably very worthy.
Montagu. NEWMAN, W.A. Biographical Memoir of John Montagu ... connected with the colony of The Cape of Good Hope during his administration ... London, Harrison 1855. Octavo publisher's blindstamped cloth; portrait and four tinted lithographs. The cloth is so gleaming that is has obviously been touched up. sold
Montagu's twenty years in Van Diemen's Land occupies one chapter but enough people must have remembered him to warrant Walch & Sons of Hobart Town bringing in copies, it has their small blindstamp on the front endpaper.
Maybe it was only one copy: it has the signature of Adam Turnbull who must be the medico and public servant who was moved around the VDL public service with Montagu during the thirties. and "in the events leading to Montagu's dismissal in 1842 Turnbull had the invidious task of mediating between him and Sir John and Lady Jane Franklin" (ADB). I guess Turnbull needed to know how often he appeared in the book and having come up empty put it away. Large sections are unopened.
Coal mine. 炭礦 [Tanko]. Tokyo, 1940 (Showa 15) Colour poster 53x77cm. A little dusty and frayed around the edges. Au$175
Mines sure came a long way from the hell for the choiceless, the bereft, and the suicidal that Soseki wrote about in 1908. That was a copper mine, I admit, but by 1940 underground workers in coal mines weren't just women and convicts. Unless of course you were forced labour from China or Korea. Still, all that has nothing to do with the shining, automated, downright pretty, triumph of technology we have here. The artist is K. Homma.
This is from a series of educational posters for schools, Wakamoto Kyoiku Kakezono. This changed my preconceptions about life in a coal mine so I wonder what else they published in the series. I might have to change my mind about a lot of things. I've found no mention of any other posters in the series.
von HARBOU, Thea; Anita Loos, & Hata Toyokichi. メトロポリス : 殿方は金髪がお好き [Metoroporisu - ie Metropolis] : [Tonogata Wa Kinpatsu Ga Osuki - Gentlemen Prefer Blondes]. Tokyo, Kaizosha 1928 (Showa 3) 15x11cm publisher's cloth and illustrated dustwrapper (tiny chip at the top of the spine near invisibly repaired); 560,[2]pp, colour frontispiece and 10 full page b/w photo illustrations - stills from the film. Page facing the frontispiece browned.
In a simple, smart, lace tied protective case by Atsuo Ikuta - bookbinder, book collector and writer - with four pages of notes about the book written by Atsuo. Au$2000
First Japanese edition of Metropolis and doubtless the first of Gentlemen Prefer Blondes which starts at p401, both translated by Hata Toyokichi. This is volume 15 of a series called Sekai Taishu Bungaku Zenshu - a library of Popular World Literature - which ran to 80 volumes between 1928 and 1931. It's a mishmash of contemporary thrillers, bestsellers, old potboilers and classics. These are way better made books than the toilet roll quality British series Reader's Library which included the first English edition of Metropolis, but it's no easier to find a copy as good as this. Certainly my searches through the series turn up tired, grubby, thumbed books that can't remember when they last saw their dustwrapper. The wrapper uses the illustration from the original 1926 German wrapper.
McIVER, G. [George]. Neuroomia: A New Continent. A manuscript delivered from the deep. Melbourne, George Robertson 1894. Octavo publisher's printed wrapper. A touch of wear to the bottom of the spine; a nice copy, outstanding for this book, usually found in gruesome shape. Au$2000
First edition, Australian wrappered issue to be precise. It appeared in cloth, boards, or wrappers, and with a London imprint. Neuroomia is a true utopia, larger than Australia, hidden in the centre of the Antarctic. I have remarked before on the crowds of stranded or lost travellers roaming around the Antarctic towards the end of the 19th century. It's a big place but surely they must have bumped into each other. And all those ancient and advanced civilisations must have been cheek to jowl.
I spent a bit of time wondering how much of this is naive and how much tongue in cheek, if not mocking. I'm undecided. But it's clear McIver understood well the form of imaginary travel: the hero must be a blockhead, otherwise nothing ever happens to interrupt endless sere and drear explanatory dialogues. He's made our hero an indefatigably bumptious, often offensive blockhead - and a serial mauler of lovely young women - so there's plenty of action.
Neuroomia is an impressively advanced socialist white middle class heaven, or would be if there was any religion. Women have liberty and equality but choose not to take any part in decision making and "are always careful not to abuse that liberty." Our hero was frightened by individual flying machines on his first day in Neuroomian society but that seems to have been a lost art by the next page. All travel from then is by ship, rail, creature, or creature drawn carts - on a bewildering scale to be fair.
No more than two thirds of the way through our hero begins to be reflective and learn from his painful self inflicted lessons so overall consequence needs ratcheting up and we are introduced to prehistoric - to us, not the Neuroomians - cataclysms caused by a wandering planet, life on Mars, interplanetary migration and the source of life on earth. None of this gets too much in our way.
McIver, a schoolteacher at Macksville in northerly NSW when he wrote this, apparently made some money from it. If so, he wasn't spurred to produce more. Much later he wrote for papers and magazines, produced a memoir of his droving days, and a slim volume of verse near the end of his life.
VILLER, Frederick. [Christian Sparre?]. The Black Tortoise : being the strange story of old Frick's Diamond. London, Heinemann 1901. Octavo publisher's illustrated tan cloth blocked in black, white and green. Rear endpaper removed but a nice fresh copy. Au$275
First English edition of an early piece of Nordic noir - only the rude would call it Norwegian wood. I think this is the second book of Inspector Monk, published in Norwegian in 1898, and the only one translated into English then and maybe still.
I was going to ask how it is that rich tiresome old farts like Frick always have a lovely daughter but I remember that I have a lovely daughter without being rich. Anyway, she's his niece. Still, it's a troublesome family for Monk to marry into. He's going to spend the rest of his life recovering that damn Black Tortoise. Only a few chapters in it's already been stolen three times.
Then there's the indefinably sinister young Australian: the son of Frick's old friend and rescuer from the Victorian gold fields. Frick's house is named Ballarat in honour of his halcyon days when he spent three years as "sherriff" of Ballarat and made the first part of his fortune. There's no murder but two suicides help balance the score.
The binding is so much like William Nicholson, who was published by Heinemann and designed Heinemann's logo, that I'm convinced.
Dondontei Kiraku. 探偵実譚 : 稲妻強盗 [Tantei Jittan : Inazuma Goto]. Tokyo, Seiyodo 1899 (Meiji 32). 22x14cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; two double page frontispieces. Inked inscription on the back blank and last leaf of text; expected browning of the paper, some smudges and small flaws, rather good. Stab holes indicate this was once bound with something else.
Without a back wrapper as issued, the colophon leaf is mounted over the neat stub of the front cover and spine. The NDL digital copy has advertising on the back of the colophon leaf - this one is blank - and at first glance has what appears to be a back wrapper but is a dark photocopy (probably) of the front wrapper mounted inside the back cover. Au$250
Japan's first pistol packing robber was Shimizu Sadakichi, arrested in 1887 after a five year rampage and five murders. But 1899's Lightning Robber - Inazuma Goto, the title of this book - was Sakamoto Keijiro, arrested in February1899 after escaping jail in 1895, a lot of robberies and three murders. Nothing about him using a gun, though. Shimizu was called the pistol robber. He was finally captured by policeman Ogawa Yoshiro who died the next year from his wounds. A bridge was named in his honour but the river was filled in and the bridge removed. He since got a plaque.
This was the stuff of sensation mongering of course, plays were performed in 1897 and 1899 and at least one other book appeared, in 1893. In 1899 four or more books called Lightning Robber appeared; that is, I found four titles but I don't know how many of them are different books. Japan's first feature film, Pisutoru Goto Shimizu Sadakichi (pistol robber Shimizu Sadakichi) but also called Inazuma Goto, appeared the same year. Clearly Sakamoto's arrest sparked a frenzy of cash-ins, Shimizu was instantly resurrected and the pair conflated into the formidable desperado we see on this cover.
Remember, though, that this is a "true detective story" so I'm sure it's not as confusing as this description.Worldcat finds no copies outside Japan.
Enomoto Horeikan. 義賊毒婦傳 妖魔の情艶 [cover title: 妖魔の艶]. [Gizoku Dokufu Den : Yoma no Joen?] Osaka, Enomoto Shoten 1927 (Taisho 16). 19x13cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; 350,[2]pp, illustrated title and frontispiece. Browning of the cheap paper and a hint of staining of the bottom edge at the beginning. Pretty good for such a disposable book. Au$120
A charming and substantial example of Dokufu - poisonous women - literature. The title sort of translates as Life Story of a Dokufu Robber : Demon's Passion. Put that together with the cover and no more needs to be said. Especially as this is a cheap pulp once you get inside.
From what I can glean Enomoto Horeikan is a series from Enomoto Matsunosuke who produced cheap pulp like this that, along with akahon (red books - luridly printed cheap kid's books), manga and suchlike, by-passed the usual distribution chains and were sold directly at railway stations, festivals and stalls.
I can't find a record of this anywhere.
Yoshida Isojiro. 生徒必携 : 新撰小学体操術 [Seito Hikkei : Shinsen Shogaku Taisojutsu]. Tokyo, Shueido 1885 (Meiji 18). Two volumes 13x19cm publisher's wrappers with title labels; a folding plate and small illustrations throughout. A nice copy. Au$125
And a nice little book, a self proclaimed essential set of physical exercises for school kids. The boys are the ones in western clothes, the girls swaddled in traditional dress. Worldcat finds no copy outside Japan.
Inoue Kohe & Hasegawa Sadanobu (artist). 西洋画引節用集 Seiyowuyebiki setuyowusiyu [Seiyo Ebiki Setsuyoshu]. Osaka, Onoki Ichibe 1872 (Meiji 5). 18x12cm publisher's wrapper (grubby, title label missing); double page colour frontispiece, small illustrations throughout. A little inoffensive worming, used but very decent copy for an old school book. In place of the title label is written: 'English of words'. Au$400
Another entrancing little educative book that leaves me stumped as to how anyone ever learnt anything. A baffling selection of English vocabulary made easy with illustrations so that any child can confidently talk and write about leeches, ear-picks, grave diggers, widowers, limbo, kidney beans, and nostrils. Unlike many such books this hasn't all been lifted wholesale from some English or American primer. The illustrations are by artist Hasegawa Sadanobu II and are all properly Japanese; these are the ear-picks, grave diggers and widowers that every child will see about them. How long will it take you to works out 'Shalms' - a boy riding a buffalo?
Worldcat finds two copies outside Japan: Brigham Young and the British Library. This opens right to left by the way.
Mitsukuri Genpo & Morishima Churyo. 改正增補 : 蠻語箋 [Kaisei Zoho : Bangosen]. Edo (Tokyo)? Kenjuku Kanko 1848 (Kaei 1). Two volumes 19x12cm, publisher's wrappers with title labels. Covers a bit blotchy, a nice set. Au$400
A revised and much improved version by master linguist and translator, Genpo, of Churyo's 'Bangosen' (barbarian words) published in 1798, when serious Dutch-Japanese dictionaries were still manuscript fragments or, like the 'Edo Haruma' of 1796, printed and hand written in an edition of 30 copies. Dutch was, of course, Japan's best way to connect with and learn about all things western until Perry's gunboat diplomacy.
Anything produced by Mitsukuri carried a lot of weight. A physician by early training he was a scholar of the west and pioneered the introduction of western science, medicine and technology (like the first description of a steam engine) into Japan, usually via the Dutch or Chinese, and served as translator for the Perry mission in 1853.
Hikifuda. Iwasaki Seishichi 栃木県都賀郡藤岡町 : 岩崎清七 Japanuese Sauce Manufactured by S. Iwasaki City - Fujioka, County - Shimotsuga, Province - Shimotsuke Japan [sic]. Tokyo [189-?]. 22x33cm lithograph. Au$100
A handsome birds-eye of the soy sauce works. The company still exists as a maker and seller of horse food, something of a come down since Iwasaki's glory days as a magnate and most important person. This view comes early in his career after he had taken over the family business and before he made two fortunes from the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese wars. He was outraged by the profiteering control ordinance passed during WWI and seems to have had some part in having it suspended.
Shimiguzumi. 住宅建築図集 [Jutaku Kenchiku Zushu]. Tokyo, Shimiguzumi 1935 (Showa 10). 30x23cm publisher's cloth (marked) in shabby but intact card case; profusely illustrated with photos and floor plans, three colour plates. Au$250
Residential architecture - some 200 houses and a few hotels and inns - built between 1906 and 1934 by building and engineering giant, Shimiguzumi - designers and builders to royalty, corporations and plutocrats. Naturally taste plays little part in building for the ultra wealthy and here we have a casserole of traditional Japanese and western mansions and strange, sometimes disturbing, hybrids in between - and a fair bit of high class modernism.
Shimiguzumi, now Shimizu, goes back to the beginning of the 19th century and they went early into Yokohama, embraced modernity, built the first western hotel in Japan, and really took off. They were also canny about publicity, issuing a smart series of cards illustrating their major works in the 1890s, two albums of their banks and office buildings in 1915, and followed this present book up with another devoted to their hotels the next year and haven't stopped for long since.
Of course this book is not just a boast or cynical publicity. Here's a rough translation from president Shimizu's preface: "Residential architecture is currently in a period of transition.We cannot be satisfied by simply copying European and American architecture, nor can we be satisfied with traditional Japanese-style architecture ... The purpose of compiling this work into an illustrated book is to provide useful materials for both design and construction, in hopes of furthering the complete development of residential architecture."
Ikematsu Hitoshi. Original illustration of a rocket-like space ship. n.p. 1975. Guoache and ink? on bristol board; 33x52cm with protective overlay sheet and mounted proof of the reduced published illustration in black and white. Signed, dated with an identification number by Ikematsu. Au$450
An exquisite cutaway rendering of a large scale space ship that seems to powered by some fuel or force - maybe gathered in space through the nose? Though it looks more like reverse gear. Humans occupy four floors toward the tail, but why are they upside down if the tail is the tail and propels the ship?
Ikematsu was a busy sci-fi and technical wizzbang artist and this was obviously for a magazine. It's a pity if the customers only got to see it at half scale in black and white.
HUBBARD, John Gellibrand. The Currency and the Country. London, Longman &c 1843. Octavo disbound; iii-viii,112pp and folding table. Without half title, stitching gone but still a fresh copy. Au$125
A notable salvo in the currency war at the time, in support of the 'single bank of issue' and consequently that any profit belongs to the nation. Marx called on this to demolish James Mill's "false theory of price" in his Elements of Political Economy and to establish other points in Kapital. I wonder what Hubbard might have thought about this. Hubbard - later Lord Addington - did, after all, become governor of the Bank of England and a conservative politician.
THORNTON, Henry. Recherches sur la Nature et les Effets du Credit du Papier dans La Grande-Bretagne. Geneva, Bibliotheque Britannique 1803. Octavo modern boards with leather label. Front and bottom edges untrimmed; a pleasing copy with half title. Au$500
First edition in French, from the English original of 1802, indicative of the international attention this received with French and German translations in 1803 and an American edition in 1807. McCulloch revived it mid century in his collection of the most valuable tracts on currency and banking after which it languished until Hayek embraced and celebrated it a century later. Now the economic metaverse swarms with researchers pointing out how important it is and how every other researcher has neglected to understand this properly.
The translation was sometimes attributed to Charles Pictet-de Rochemont, founder of the Bibliotheque Britannique, but Etienne Dumont - the French (and comprehensible) voice of Bentham, who urged Dumont to translate Thornton - is the translator.
MALTHUS, T.R. An Essay on the Principle of Population; ... The Fourth Edition. London, for J. Johnson 1807. Two volumes octavo, uncut and unopened in original boards. Chipping at the spine tops, front hinge of volume I cracked but holding. A scattering of light spots, rather good. Au$500
Malthus beavered away at this producing four editions in nine years; or, perhaps, three editions in five years as he regarded the second edition as pretty much a new work. Then it sat for a decade until his fifth edition in conjunction with a separate volume of additions to this fourth and earlier editions so as to save owners from having to buy a whole new set. He may well have shrunk from causing an over-population crisis of his books on library shelves.
[GASPEY, Thomas]. The History of George Godfrey. Written by himself. London, Colburn 1828. Three volumes octavo, recent half calf. Half titles in volumes two and three, not one, as seems proper. A marginal tidemark in a couple of sections toward the end of volume III, stains from the original leather corners at each end; a rather good, fresh copy.
On the blank before the title is, in a miniscule hand, something of a review of the book by, I presume, the original reader in which remarks are made about easy recognition of several respectable London criminals: stock brokers, auctioneers, lawyers, police magistrates, ministers, and the like. And the original of Mr Haversham. Au$2250
Only edition until recent reprints of this rare picaresque crime thriller, usually pulled out by academics as a pioneer Newgate novel; ie the sort of degrading, mean stuff that no gentle reader should read; the sort of stuff that belongs in penny sheets with short words and big type for the low classes, not for anyone who can afford a subscription to a proper lending library.
It is, as well, an Australian novel with the major hunk of volume three devoted to our hapless fool transported to New South Wales where he escapes and joins the 'Bush Rangers' around the Windsor/Hunter Valley region. It is, more interesting, also a proper mystery with the darkest deeds unveiled and an evil master mind unmasked by a self appointed detective at the end. This brings us to maybe the most interesting point.
Our hero is, as hinted, a hapless, craven idiot with a feeble moral compass and the real hero of the book is the only decent and clever - as opposed to cunning - character who acts as detective and saviour: Mr Haversham, who started life as William Beckford before going into the fictional character business. Haversham is an obscenely rich eccentric who is obsessed with building his overwhelming gothic Priory and tower, behind high walls, and shunned by society for his unproven crime. Haversham's crime was merely the murder of his young wife, not the unsavoury charges against Beckford.
I found no suggestion that Gaspey knew Beckford but, through Mr Haversham, he debunks several captious slurs doing the rounds, including the mysterious banquets served every day to the lonesome Beckford.
The Monthly Review wrote a friendly and generous review while the Athenaeum padded out pages with excerpts from the book only to condemn it as low trash and likely an evil influence: "From the nature of the book itself, the style of its execution is coarse, vulgar, and often unintelligible and uninteresting, and though some of its exposures may be correct, yet we doubt much if these publications be not injurious." Gaspey wrote to the Athenaeum complaining little about his 'chastising' but defending his research into Godfrey's travels. Both reviewers predicted it would be popular. Gaspey's publisher had money in both these magazines, I believe.
Ferguson listed this which, I guess, made Miller/Macartney skip it as non-fiction, so I expected to find it well represented in Australian libraries. Not so, Trove finds only the Mitchell and Monash copies. Not so many anywhere else in the world, either. Wolff had a handful of Gaspey novels but not this while Sadleir ignored him. It does deserve to be in Hubin.
Confectionary. 菓子模様 - 天 [Kashi Moyo - Ten] Kyoto, Fujisawa 1912 (Meiji 45). 18x25cm publisher's silk with printed label (silk faded); 25 accordian folded card leaves with numerous colour woodcuts on 40 pages (two full page), text on the rest. Some browning or spotting but most acceptable. Au$500
Third edition? Three of these kashi albums were published in 1901 and 1902 covering heaven, earth and people, I think by the Kyoto sweetmakers association. Heaven is the theme for this offering of sweet designs. Books of kashi designs like this are known to date back to the late 17th century, there may have been earlier ones. They were produced by high class confectioners as catalogues for their high class customers. The text at the end apparently describes each treat. As you might expect their names are allusive and poetic: no 'custard tart' here, think rather of 'autumn wind'.
Kashi albums or pattern books blossomed in the late Meiji through to the early Showa - from about 1900 to 1930 - and I'm not sure why. I wonder if it was a fad inspired by someone like the crown princess having a passion for these elaborate sweets.
Worldcat finds one entry for this outside Japan and none of the others.
Catalogue - hearses. Merts & Riddle, Ravenna, Ohio. Merts & Riddle, Coach and Hearse Builders. Ravenna, printed by S.D. Harris [188-?]. Oblong octavo publisher's illustrated wrapper; 50pp, full page wood engraved illustrations throughout. A remarkably good copy. Au$250
Ravenna was clearly more than a one hearse town in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. Merts and Riddle bought their employer's coach building company in 1861 and expanded into hearses a decade or so later. When Merts left in 1891 the company became Riddle Coach & Hearse Co.
This is the earliest catalogue - dated "1880 or so" - in the collection of Thomas Riddle, descendant and company historian. The catalogues at the Huntington with a conjectured date of 1875 aren't. Romaine did not see any Merts & Riddle catalogues.
日本の兵隊さん [Nihon no Heitai-san]. Tokyo, Yonen Kurabu 1933 (Showa 8). 19x26cm publisher's colour illustrated wrapper; 32pp, illustrated throughout in red and blue or black. Some browning blotches, rather good. Au$125
A fun filled manga view, for boys, of life in the military. It's all a romp but sailors have way more excitement and an easier life than soldiers.
