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An antique or second-hand shop
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz, 1881, Photograph
An antique or second-hand shop
An antique or second-hand shop
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Location
Category
Library Item
Item no
15159
Title
An antique or second-hand shop.
Description
A Japanese lady and man sit in front of a shop display. They are both wearing casual kimonos and are sitting on tatami mats. The shop owner is holding a 'soroban', a type of abacus developed in Japan. His hair is arranged in the 'chonmage' style: the top of his head is shaven and the hair on the back is folded in a topknot. Next to him on the floor is a tobacco tray. The woman, probably a customer, is holding a long smoking pipe ('kiseru') in her hands. Her hair is arranged in a round chignon in the 'marumage' style.
Behind them on display steps lies a wide variety of decorative goods such as lacquerware, Buddhist utensils, plates, vases, trays, chests, swords, an armour and a variety of china. The photograph was hand-coloured with great care and meticulousness.
Artist / maker
von Stillfried-Ratenicz, Franz
Date
1881
Size
19.5 x 24 cm
Type
Photograph
Location
Art and Design Library
This item is part of a collection of prints from the studio of Baron Franz von Stillfried-Ratenicz, an Austrian photographer practising in Japan in the late 1870's. Von Stillfried ran a studio in Yokohama at the same time as his brother Raimund, who was also known as 'Baron Stillfried'. This caused a great deal of confusion with the local residents and visitors to Japan in the Meiji Period, and with art historians today.
This album, which dates from 1879-83, comprises 67 separate mounted prints presented in a lacquerware box. Albums of this kind were popular among foreign tourists, who frequently selected the individual prints they wished to include from the studio's collection. Many of these albumen prints were hand tinted. This was a laborious process for which von Stillfried employed, at the height of his success, a substantial number of Japanese workers. This particular picture shows the skill of the painter who applied the colour with great care in order to highlight various details.
Antiques and second-hand shops were common in Nineteenth-century Japan and were popular with Japanese people as well as with Western visitors. Shop owners dealt in a vast range of articles, from daily necessities to souvenirs and antiques. The variety of goods on display fascinated foreign visitors and were one of the favourite subjects of early Japanese photographs. They offered a colourful and exotic sight to the Victorian public always eager for new and exotic images.
Many highly valuable articles such as swords or a composite armour are visible on this photograph. The presence of battlefield equipment suggests that many of the items had been sold to the shop by samurais. Baron Stillfried often used this kind of armours as props for his photographs. For instance, this album includes two portraits of men wearing a samurai armour that might have been the same.
Exhibitions with this item
Views and Costumes of China & Japan
Other views of this item
Related images
Related subjects
Business
>
Service industry
>
Shops
Clothing and dress
>
Garments
>
Armour
Furnishings
>
Ornamentation
>
Ornaments
Furnishings
>
Ornamentation
>
Vases
Military
>
Arms and armament
>
Daggers and swords
People
>
Adults
>
Men
People
>
Adults
>
Women
Places
>
Asia
>
Japan
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