An antique or second-hand shop

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.

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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