Frederic May Sale 1918
The Frederic May Sale was held over three days in May 1918, at the rooms of the American Art Association in New York City. Afternoon sales featured objects of art, with the evening sales dedicated to Japanese prints.
Among the bidders were many of the major names in Japanese print collecting at the time, including Frederick W. Gookin, Kano Oshima and John Spaulding. Prominent dealers Otto Bernet and Rose Lorenz were also represented.
Given here is a transcription of the sale catalog including the purchaser of each item and the winning bid amount. The information is based on a facsimile scan in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which itself purchased several items. Where the handwritten names or prices cannot be read, the information is omitted or noted as unclear.
Where the provenance can be established, images for each lot are of the actual item sold at auction. It is also noted where the image is possibly of the actual item, e.g. when the current provenance indicates a print once belonged to the purchaser. In most other cases, images are examples of the same print taken from current online collections. In some cases, black and white images from the catalog are used where a color image cannot be found. These are of poor quality and will be replaced if better examples are found.
A note about the prices: the modern collector may be astounded to see such rare and beautiful prints selling for as little as $5.00. What may be more astounding is that based on the consumer price index, $5.00 in 1918 had a purchasing power of approximately $108 in 2024 dollars. The top price was for a bijin picture by Utamaro, bought by Kano Oshima, who paid $410 – the equivalent of about $9,000 today.
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Lot 111. (A) OTSU; (B) KYOTO; (C) IMPERIAL PALACE, KYOTO
Pictured is an example of Otsu from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) [From] TOKAIDO GO-JU-SAN TSUGI. Twelve prints of the Tokaido set in vertical format, size 9 1/8 x 6 7/8 inches. Originally issued in a packet. Only the last sheet of the series was signed. Purchaser: Mr. Sherwood…
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Lot 112. ODE BY TENCHI TENNO
Image is an example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Scene, a rice field in autumn; farmers harvesting crop. My lowly hut is thatched with straw / From fields where rice-sheaves frequent stand, / Now autumn’s harvest’s well-nigh o’er, / Collected by my toiling hand: / Through tattered roof…
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Lot 113. ODE BY JITO TENNO
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) People fording a stream, two of them bowing low to each other: women carrying freshly washed cloth to drying racks in the distance. The pleasant spring hath passed away / Now summer follows close, I ween, / And Ama’s…
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Lot 114. ODE BY KAKI-NO-MOTO NO HITOMARU
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Men dragging nets up a mountain stream like a “pheasant’s tail,” in the early morning. The hill-side fowl his long-drooped tail / Sweeps o’er the ground — so drags the night. / My lonely plight / I mourn —…
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Lot 115. ODE BY YAMABE NO AKAHITO
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Travellers toiling up a hill on the shore of Tago bay; Fuji in the distance. From where my home, — / My lonely home, — on Tago’s shore / Doth stand, the wandering eye may roam / O’er Fujiyama’s…
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Lot 116. ODE BY SARUMARU TAYU
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Women passing through the mountains in autumn pause to listen to the cry of a stag. Now ‘mid the hills the momiji / Is trampled down ‘neath hoof of deer, / Whose plaintive cries continually / Are heard both…
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Lot 117. ODE BY CHUN AGON YAKAMOCHI
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Men on a junk watch the flight of magpies at nightfall. If the “Magpie Bridge”— / Bridge by flight of magpies spanned — / White with frost I see: — / With a deep laid frost, made white: —…
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Lot 118. ODE BY ABE NO NAKAMARO
Image is an example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) The poet in China being starved by Imperial command wrote the poem in blood on his sleeve. I search high heaven / And now above Mikasa / In the land of Kasuga / I know the moon is shining,…
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Lot 119. ODE BY ONO NO KOMACHI
Image is an example from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Peasants outside a farm house engaged in the ordinary drudgery of life. Thy love hath passed away from me / Left desolate, forlorn — / In winter rains how wearily / The summer past I mourn! HYAKUNIN ISSHU…
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Lot 120. ODE BY SANJI TAKAMURA
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) A boat putting out to sea passes the rocks at Ise where women are diving for awabi shells. Ye fishermen, who range the sea / In many a barque, I pray ye tell / My fellow-villagers of me —…
