The site url and title "ukiyoe auction records" is something of a misnomer for at least four separate reasons.
First, although we have included the auction records from as many ukiyo-e auction catalogues as we could find (a list of included auction catalogues can be found [here]), the site creator is under no illusions that he has captured all historical auction results. For example, the missing auction catalogue list [here] shows all the additional catalogues of which he is aware but prints from which is not currently included. A glaring gap is obviously the many Japanese auction catalogues dating from the period between 1915 to 1935 that are missing. Finally, no doubt, there are additional important catalogues of which he is completely unaware and that are not included on the missing auction catalogue list. So despite best efforts, this list is not encyclopedic. Perhaps, between John Resig's ukiyo-e.org site, other museum collections not currently covered by ukiyo-e.org, and this site, we might cover a majority of extant Japanese prints. Obviously, the hope is to add missing auction catalogues to the site in the future.
Second, the website actually goes beyond auction catalogues and provides information on prints illustrated in early ukiyo-e books or those referenced or illustrated in exhibition catalogues. Many of these prints have never appeared in an auction catalogue or were listed in an auction catalogue without an illustration because the print had been reproduced in an earlier well-known book or exhibition catalogue (such as the Vignier & Inada catalogues issued between 1909 and 1914). In the 1920s and 1930s, most serious Ukiyo-e print collectors had access to these early scholarly works and exhibition catalogues. That is perhaps less true today since these works are long out of print. In addition, we cover (where we have had access to them) prints contained in various dealer catalogues (and prints referred to on various dealer websites from around the world).
Third, and as users will no doubt note with dismay, while we have included the records of prints contained in auction catalogues for many ukiyo-e artists, this site does not attempt to cover every ukiyo-e artist. To give a few noteworthy examples of ukiyo-e artists that are not included, we have not included the auction catalogue records of prints by Utamaro, Sharaku, Kunisada, Kuniyoshi, Hokusai, Hiroshige, or Yoshitoshi.
The question may be asked, why include the artists that are included but not these other artists? The answer to that question was principally one of practicality. The artists whose records this site covers are, for the most part, "Primitive Period" artists (working from circa 1680 to 1765) and "Golden Age" artists (working from circa 1765 to 1810-15). In the case of the covered artists, copies of their prints typically exist only in extremely limited numbers (in some cases a single copy, in other cases perhaps as many as a half dozen copies). Further, in many instances, it was often the case that prints by many of these artists were illustrated, even in early auction catalogues.
In contrast, the number of a given Hiroshige, or Hokusai or Kunisada print in auction catalogues is, typically, a vastly greater number (as an example, most of the auction references in various auction catalogues to Hokusai's Kirifuri waterfall can be found [here] and Hiroshige's print of Mishima from 53 Stations of the Tokaido can be found [here].) The inclusion of listings of prints for these artists would add relatively little useful information other than showing the vast number of extant copies of prints for these post-1800 print artists. But most problematic is that (as can be seen) most copies of prints by these artists contained in early auction catalogues were only occasionally illustrated ("[I]") and the descriptions were, in the nature of things, largely unhelpful. In sum, this site is concerned with prints by ukiyo-e artists where the number of copies of a given print appears to be manageably limited and where an interested user of the website may have some chance to use it to locate useful information. For artists that are not included, it may be worthwhile going to www.artnet.com. Artnet.com includes artists not included here with descriptions of prints (and illustrations). The drawback to Artnet is it is a commercial site and it only covers prints sold since approximately 1990 (whereas this site goes back into the nineteenth century).
Finally, the site does not cover ukiyo-e paintings that may have been sold at these auctions nor (for the most part) does it include surimono or ehon (books).
What is the purpose of a site like this? As described below, there are several potential benefits to such a site. In developing the site, the site creator took some inspiration from John Resig's site, https://ukiyo-e.org. As most ukiyo-e enthusiasts know, John Resig's site aggregates Japanese prints that can be found in various museum (and some dealer) collections around the world on an artist-by-artist basis. His site can be an incredible resource in looking for prints by a given artist. (Like many users, we hope he will update the site in the future.)
This site is intended to provide a somewhat comparable resource -- a listing of prints by certain ukiyo-e artists that have been sold through the years at major auction houses or from reputable dealers or which have otherwise been exhibited at print exhibitions or reproduced in (primarily) early ukiyo-e books. Sometimes the descriptions are unhelpful (particularly in some late 19th-early 20th century auction catalogues). But many descriptions can be fruitfully searched by a series title or sub-title, by the name of an actor or courtesan or by specific elements contained in a print (e.g., black dog, or cat, or plum blossoms, etc.). Users should be aware that descriptions from French auction catalogues are in French and descriptions from German auction catalogues are in German. In general, for those who do not read French or German, Google Translate can be useful. See https://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=mT&sl=auto&tl=en&op=translate .
First, it can provide useful information for collectors and dealers. While Frank Lloyd Wright was correct in stating that "collectors don't choose prints, prints choose collectors," most thoughtful collectors realize they are merely relatively (in historical terms) short-term custodians of their prints and those prints will, with luck, be treasured by other collectors in the future. It is then a short step to having an interest in those collectors who were custodians of these prints before us. As James Michener once wrote,
Like most collectors, I find much pleasure in identifying prints once owned by illustrious predecessors. For example, the notable Japanese pioneers Wakai and Hayashi once held many of [the prints reproduced in the book] and their seals are seen; Kobayashi, Kuni and Mihara are also represented. Most of the distinguished French connoisseurs, who in Europe launched both the love of ukiyo-e and its scholarship are here: Gonse, Manzi, Haviland, Jacquin, Bing, Rouart, Vignier and Koechlin. The finest German of them all. Straus-Negbaur, is represented . .
Michener, Japanese Prints: From the Early Masters to the Modern (1959), p. 23.
So, in the best of cases, this site may be able to help a collector, dealer or auction house determine whether a particular print has been sold before, as well as where, and when (and in some cases, from whom and to whom). Of course, many prints are sold non-publicly from a collector to a dealer, from one dealer to another dealer, or from a dealer to a collector and never (or only rarely) come into the public auction record. Therefore, this site is at best an imperfect reflection of the ukiyo-e print market, particularly as it relates to very rare and often very expensive prints.
In addition, there is no doubt that knowing that a print was part of a famous collection can, all things being equal, lead to some increased level of financial value for a print. In a hypothetical case of two identical prints, one with no known provenance, the other with a Henri Vever seal, the latter will, caeterus paribus, ordinarily be worth more than the former. So there are at least two reasons why collectors might want to determine the provenance of their prints, for the reason given by James Michener as well as for purely economic reasons.
Except in the simplest of cases, most dealers or auction houses do not provide (in some cases, are not able to provide) much useful information about the ukiyo-e prints they sell. This is at least in part a function that dealers and auction houses have comparatively little time and limited means to do the research that might permit them to track down the provenance of a given print. Being a dealer in ukiyo-e is a largely gentlemanly (or gentlewomanly) but cut-throat business and time is of the essence. Turnover of inventory is important in this business as it is in any other business.
In times past, there were ukiyo-e specialists with significant levels of expertise. Some of these specialists (such as Portier, Charles Vignier, Hogitaro Inada, Teruji Yoshida, Kiyoshi Shibui, Jack Hillier, and others) possessed seemingly exhaustive encyclopedic knowledge of Japanese prints. This expertise seems in much shorter supply today. A recent auction house specialist did not realize that a Shunsho print of a young girl in white attire walking near water next to a brushwood fence was a "Sagi Musume" print (and in consequence, the "young girl" was, in fact, the Kabuki actor Segawa Kikunojo II and the print could be reasonably dated to 1770, the date when the actor revived his previous Sagi Musume performance (to great acclaim)).
For dealers or auction houses, it may also be that there is relatively limited benefit in identifying the provenance of a print unless, e.g., a print has a recognizable collector's seal. (For those interested, a list of collector's seals was compiled by Matthi Forrer and published in a 1983 issue of Andon, the Leiden based publication of the Society for Japanese Art. This list can be accessed by subscribing to Andon [ https://www.societyforjapaneseart.org/join-us ]. We understand that Andreas Marks, the Curator of Japanese and Korean Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Art, is compiling a more complete list of collector's seals which we await eagerly. A dealer or auction house could hypothetically open itself up to a complaint from a purchaser if it described a print as having a certain provenance unless it could be shown to be the case with a reasonably high degree of certainty.
Finally, we must note that it is sometimes the case that prints are sold at auction or to a dealer by a party who is not interested in sharing his or her knowledge of a print's prior provenance. It is further frequently the case that the print is sold by a person (typically an heir) who does not know what the original collector knew (where, when, and from whom the collector acquired a given print or what the collector might have known about the print). A recent example of a Shunsho triptych (actually part of a polyptych) of Kabuki actors as otokodate was sold at auction without any apparent realization on the part of the sellers or auction house that these were prints previously sold at the famous 1925 Arthur Davison Ficke auction. So in the nature of things, many prints become unintentionally detached from their historical provenance.
This website is an attempt to assist both collectors and dealers (as well as auction houses) conceivably to get a better handle on the provenance of the prints passing through their hands. (Obviously, this can be irrelevant for a faded, tattered print (unless it is otherwise very rare and very important). If a single copy of a print can be shown to have been sold at auction (and that copy is not otherwise in a museum collection), Occam's razor would suggest that the copy of that print under consideration might conceivably be the print described in the auction listing. (Of course, one must also consider the possibility that it may not be as well.)
From there, it may be possible to reach a higher level of certainty based upon other information included in the auction catalogue record. For example, if the print has a Wakai, Hayashi, Rouart, Vever or other identifiable collector's seal, this may prove useful in tracking the print's historical provenance. In addition, a picture of the print contained in a catalogue may also aid in identification. Many individual prints have particular idiosyncracies (such as very particular marks, repaired wormholes, line breaks, nicks or rubbings etc) that can help determine whether a print under review is the print previously reproduced in a given catalogue.
This website indicates whether a given print was reproduced or illustrated in a catalogue or book. We have provided links to those auction catalogues and books that are available online by referencing a catalogue's url in the list of included auction catalogues (found here). For example, if a particular print was included in (say) the 1927 Frank Lloyd Wright auction at the Anderson Galleries in New York and is marked as being illustrated, one could check the list of catalogues and see that that catalogue is available online
|
1927 |
Jan 6-7 |
New York |
Anderson Galleries |
The Frank Lloyd Wright Collection of Japanese Antique Prints (#2120) |
If someone wanted to check a picture from that catalogue they could click on the url and then look through the catalogue until they found the print illustration in question. (Unfortunately, it must be said that not all prints are illustrated and not all illustrations are of high quality).
Until relatively recently, a site like this was not possible because of the extreme scarcity of many early auction catalogues. While not all auction catalogues are available online, many of the earlier catalogues have now been digitized and can be found online. For this, we can thank, in particular, the Thomas J. Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian, the Getty Research Institute library, various other libraries, and the Internet Archive (which hosts the digitized material). We hope other institutions with existing collections of auction catalogues will follow suit.
In many cases, even if a print is not illustrated, the auction catalogue's description of a print may reference some of a print's unique physical characteristics (e.g., if the catalogue refers to "repaired wormhole in upper right corner" and the print being examined has a repaired wormhole in the upper right corner this can be useful for identification purposes. It is also the case that many, particularly French, catalogues provide the measurements of the prints in the catalogue in centimeters or millimeters (some of the better American catalogues provide measurements as well in eighths or sixteenths of an inch). If a print being examined has the same dimensions as a referenced print, that may provide some useful information towards identifying a given print's provenance (bearing in mind that a catalogue's print measurements may not necessarily be entirely accurate). But it can still be useful even if the print has different dimensions from those provided in a catalogue. In that case, one can conclude that that particular catalogue print is probably not, in fact, the print being examined. The ability to determine that a copy referenced in an auction catalogue is not the print under consideration still has value in narrowing prior provenance.
Even if it is not possible to determine whether a given print being examined is the print referred to in the auction catalogue record, it can still be useful to know the level of rarity of a given print. One of the most surprising things the site's creator discovered in his research was how few copies of primitive and early Nishiki-e prints actually appear to be extant (particularly, in good condition with unfaded color).
As many collectors know, the number of impressions of most prints (until the1830s to 1840s) was probably originally no more than 200-400 copies. See, e.g., Hillier, Japanese Colour Prints (Phaidon, 1966), pp 8-9 (acknowledging no certainty as to the number of prints taken from a set of blocks but noting that an extant letter from Hokusai to one of his publishers set the limit at 200 prints). In many cases, most of these impressions have been lost or destroyed. Thus, if a collector determines that there appear to be three copies of a given print in museum collections (perhaps as a consequence of looking at Ukiyo-e.org) and another three or four copies apparently still existing outside of museum collections that have been sold at auction or by various dealers, this is a useful data point for purposes of gauging (i) the print's relative rarity and (ii) the likelihood that, as a collector, one will ever find another (possibly better preserved) copy of the print under consideration.
Pricing for ukiyo-e prints, all other things being equal, seems historically to bear only a relatively limited relationship to rarity because no one has had a reasonably good sense of how many copies of a print may, in fact, still exist. In many cases, dealers may describe a print as "rare" when, in point of fact, the print is very likely unique. Finally, if collectors know that their print is very rare or unique perhaps they will be more inclined to take proper care of it for the benefit of future collectors (i.e., they won't hang it on the wall so that it ends up a faded wreck). The difference between a ukiyo-e print with its original vibrant colors and a faded impression is the difference, as Samuel Clemens remarked in a different context, between lightning and a lightning bug. It is, of course, also in the long-term economic interest of a print owner to treat his or her prints properly.
Finally, it is possible that ukiyo-e scholars may be able to use this data in ways the site creator cannot currently conceive. It would be wonderful if this site is able to advance ukiyo-e scholarship in some useful way.
We note that the reason we include seller's and purchaser's names (where known) is both for "provenance purposes" but also to minimize potential "double counting" of prints. If a specific print was acquired in 1920 by Mr. A and sold (also by Mr. A or his heirs) in 1950, we can reasonably conclude that these transactions concern a single copy of the print, not two separate copies. Absent the references to Mr. A in 1920 and 1950, it might be reasonable to believe that these two references referred to two separate copies of the print.
We have also, where it could be determined, indicated where prints sold at auction have ended up in a museum collection . Such prints, unless subsequently de-accessioned, are hors de combat. No doubt there are prints now in museum collections that we have not been able to mark as now in such a public collection. As time goes on, we hope to identify as many such prints (and the museum that holds them) as possible.
In summary, the purpose of this site is to make research into the provenance of ukiyo-e prints more feasible and less difficult for those with an interest in tracking down the history of their prints. The site offers a wealth of information. It is to be hoped the information will be used thoughtfully and carefully.
Comments and suggestions for improvement are gratefully accepted. In the event users have material that should be included on the site it can be sent as a pdf file to auctionukiyoerecords.gmail.com