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.
-
Lot 131. ODE BY BUNYA NO ASAYASU
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Women in a boat, gathering lotus leaves. Now dew-drops sparkling o’er the moor are seen, / The autumn gust sweeps howling by, / Scarce lurks an instant ‘mid the reeds I ween, / In timid show’r the dew drops…
-
Lot 132. ODE BY SANGI HITOSHI
Image is an example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) A nobleman attended by two servants walking along a path through fields enveloped in long clouds of fog. Like humble Asaju amid / The reeds of Ono’s moor hid / I would my passion were concealed / But by…
-
Lot 133. ODE BY ONAKATOMI YOSHINOBU
Image is an example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) The poet sits on a hill overlooking a misty plain, while outside the Imperial gateway just below, warders are grouped about a fire. Th’ Mikaki-mori through the night / (And men the warder Yeji name) / The watch-fire’s blaze…
-
Lot 134. ODE BY FUJIWARA NO YOSHITAKA
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) A great bath house by a lake where water birds are diving. Clouds of steam rise from the hot baths, and bathers are resting on the balcony. Ere I, O maid! had worshipped thee, / A drear, uncared-for life…
-
Lot 135. ODE BY FUJIWARA NO MICHINOBU
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Travellers being carried in kago down a hill in the foreground and along a road winding over a gray plain stretching away to the horizon where trees are silhouetted against the early morning light. Though I know full well…
-
Lot 136. ODE BY SANJO NO IN
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Shinto ceremony in the Imperial palace in honor of the autumn full moon. Fain would I in this world so hard / No longer live, but still must stay: — / How wistfully my eyes regard / The midnight…
-
Lot 137. ODE BY DAINAGON TSUNENOBU
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) An uphill road overlooking rice fields. Farmers are carrying baskets on a pole, and women filling water buckets in a brook by the roadside. Now twilight darkens, and the breeze / Rustles the homeside rice-fields ‘mong, / And murmuring…
-
Lot 138. ODE BY GONCHUNAGON SADAIYE
Image is an example from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston KATSUSHIKA HOKUSAI (B. 1760, d. 1849) Salt makers at work on a sea beach; a great column of smoke streaming upward from the fire under the boiling pans in a straw hut; at the left men stacking bundles of faggots. On Mats’ho’s shore, our…
-
Lot 139. SUNSHU
Image is an example from the Art Institute of Chicago ANDO HIROSHIGE (B. 1797, d. 1858) Fujikawa Watashi-bune no Zu. The ferry across the Fujikawa, province of Sunshu: Fuji san in the distance. [from] HONCHO MEISHO, “Famous Sights of the Main Island.” Three prints of this series, which apparently was begun before 1830 and continued…
-
Lot 140. SHINSHU
Image is an example from the Museum of Fine Arts Boston ANDO HIROSHIGE (B. 1797, d. 1858) Sarashina Tagoto no Tsuki. The moon reflected in a rice field at Sarashina province of Shinshu. [from] HONCHO MEISHO, “Famous Sights of the Main Island.” Three prints of this series, which apparently was begun before 1830 and continued…
