Jonathan A. Hill Archives - Rare Book Insider

Jonathan A. Hill

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Illustrated manuscript panorama on paper (545 x 1170 mm.), several joined sheets forming one large sheet, brush & color washes, manuscript text in black & red ink, documenting an early official meeting between the United States and Japan

(BIDDLE, James, Commodore) [Japan]: dated "5 May 1846" in top right corner. A strikingly drawn panorama of Commodore James Biddle's appearance off the coast of Japan in July 1846, one of the first official encounters between America and Japan. In July 1845, Commodore James Biddle (1783-1848) concluded negotiations for the Treaty of Wanghia between the United States and China. With two ships, the USS Columbus and USS Vincennes, he then sailed to Uraga Channel, close to the Japanese capital, Edo. This went against the conventional wisdom that he head to Nagasaki, where the Dutch enjoyed a monopoly on trade with Japan. Stationed in the channel, on 20 July 1846, Biddle made an official request to Japanese representatives to initiate Japanese-American trade relations. His efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and he set sail for the United States on the 29th. Our rendering captures the surrounding coastline and terrain. It is especially detailed concerning the island nation's defensive structures: odaiba (fortresses), barracks, and gathering places. Above the panorama are thorough enumerations of the Japanese fiefdoms that sent troops to defend the capital city. Biddle's two "black ships" are found in the bottom left, illustrated with dozens of cannons peeking through the gun ports, and a rough interpretation of the American flag. The text written with red ink records the distances between certain key points and the number of cannons that the Japanese spotted. Per an inscription on the upper left, our panorama is copied from an original document belonging to the inner circle of the Matsudaira Yamato no kami (a regional lord). These documents were top-secret and were disseminated only between elite government officials. Information on foreigners and their more frequent incursions was strictly controlled in the 1840s and '50s. In very good condition; some minor worming and a couple of large open tears that have been expertly mended, but with some loss to the illustrations. ❧ For an extensive early American report on Biddle's expedition, see the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings (July 1905), Vol. 31/3/115, accessed 9 March 2023.
  • $4,500
  • $4,500
Exhibition postcard: Hanne Darboven Bei Konrad Fischer (22 October-15 November [1968])

Exhibition postcard: Hanne Darboven Bei Konrad Fischer (22 October-15 November [1968])

(DARBOVEN, Hanne) Black & white illus. on recto, details on verso. Large pictorial postcard, mailed. Düsseldorf: Konrad Fischer, [1968]. Invitation to Darboven's true solo debut at Konrad Fischer's gallery; the previous year Darboven (1941-2009) and Charlotte Posenenske (1930-85) had concurrent exhibitions at the gallery (5 December-2 January). The recto illustration reproduces one of Darboven's drawings. On the verso there is a list of the artist's previous exhibitions. She presented a series of drawings, five with a vertical orientation and five horizontal. One of Fischer's most important and early clients, the Dutch collector couple Martin and Mia Visser likely purchased two drawings from this show, according to Sophie Richard's Unconcealed (p. 314). "Through [Kasper König], [Darboven] got in touch with Konrad Fischer. After showing Carl Andre's work, Fischer wanted his second exhibition to be with Darboven's Konstruktionen in December 1967. This would have been her first solo exhibition, but to Darboven's and König's great consternation, shortly before the exhibition, Fischer decided to combine her drawings with serial sculptures by Charlotte Posenenske.On Konrad Fischer's initiative, Hanne Darboven also had her first museum exhibition in Mönchengladbach in 1969."-Cloud & Crystal: The Dorothee and Konrad Fischer Collection (2016 exhib. booklet), p. 30. A fine copy. Mailed to J. Petersen of Berlin. ❧ D. Fischer, ed., Ausstellungen bei Konrad Fischer: Düsseldorf Oktober 1967-Oktober 1992 (Edition Marzona: 1993) 12 (pictured).
  • $375
book (2)

Illustrated manuscript panorama on paper (545 x 1170 mm.), several joined sheets forming one large sheet, brush & color washes, manuscript text in black & red ink, documenting an early official meeting between the United States and Japan

[Japan]: dated "5 May 1846" in top right corner. A strikingly drawn panorama of Commodore James Biddle's appearance off the coast of Japan in July 1846, one of the first official encounters between America and Japan. In July 1845, Commodore James Biddle (1783-1848) concluded negotiations for the Treaty of Wanghia between the United States and China. With two ships, the USS Columbus and USS Vincennes, he then sailed to Uraga Channel, close to the Japanese capital, Edo. This went against the conventional wisdom that he head to Nagasaki, where the Dutch enjoyed a monopoly on trade with Japan. Stationed in the channel, on 20 July 1846, Biddle made an official request to Japanese representatives to initiate Japanese-American trade relations. His efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and he set sail for the United States on the 29th. Our rendering captures the surrounding coastline and terrain. It is especially detailed concerning the island nation's defensive structures: odaiba (fortresses), barracks, and gathering places. Above the panorama are thorough enumerations of the Japanese fiefdoms that sent troops to defend the capital city. Biddle's two "black ships" are found in the bottom left, illustrated with dozens of cannons peeking through the gun ports, and a rough interpretation of the American flag. The text written with red ink records the distances between certain key points and the number of cannons that the Japanese spotted. Per an inscription on the upper left, our panorama is copied from an original document belonging to the inner circle of the Matsudaira Yamato no kami (a regional lord). These documents were top-secret and were disseminated only between elite government officials. Information on foreigners and their more frequent incursions was strictly controlled in the 1840s and '50s. In very good condition; some minor worming and a couple of large open tears that have been expertly mended, but with some loss to the illustrations. ❧ For an extensive early American report on Biddle's expedition, see the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings (July 1905), Vol. 31/3/115, accessed 9 March 2023.
book (2)

Exhibition postcard: Richard J. Long: Sculpture Bei Konrad Fischer (5 July-1 August [1969])

Black & white photographic illus. with text in red on recto, details on verso. Large-format photographic postcard, mailed. Düsseldorf: Konrad Fischer, [1969]. Rare postcard invitation to Richard Long's second Konrad Fischer exhibition, the first took place the previous September-October. Long (b. 1945) displayed a sculpture composed of pine needles called Sculpture at Konrad Fischer Düsseldorf (1969). A caption for the recto photograph reads: "The River Avon, Bristol: The Pill Ferry crossing at half tide, seen from the Shirehampton side of the river." S. Richard's Unconcealed suggests that Giuseppe Panza di Biumo purchased Sculpture at Konrad Fischer. from Gian Enzo Sperone after the exhibition. "'I have never felt so spontaneously enthusiastic about anyone as I did about Richard Long,' said Konrad Fischer about the first time he saw one of the British sculptor's works. This was in 1967 at the group exhibition Dies alles, Herzchen, wird einmal Dir gehören (One Day, Darling, All of This Will Belong to You) in the Galerie Dorothea Loehr in Frankfurt, where Fischer, alias Lueg, also took part."-Cloud & Crystal: The Dorothee and Konrad Fischer Collection (2016 exhib. booklet), p. 45. A near fine copy; small vertical crease. The recto photograph was taken by D. Johnston. Mailed to collectors Herrn und Frau Karl Heinemann of Mönchengladbach. ❧ D. Fischer, ed., Ausstellungen bei Konrad Fischer: Düsseldorf Oktober 1967-Oktober 1992 (Edition Marzona: 1993) 22 (pictured). Sophie Richard, Unconcealed: The International Network of Conceptual Artists 1967-77, Dealers, Exhibitions and Public Collections (2nd printing: 2010), p. 318.
book (2)

Satsubyo shinan [Ch.: Cha bing zhi nan; Directory for Diagnosing Diseases]

SHI FA (or SHI, Guitang, or ZHENG, Qing, or SHI, Hatsu; J.: SHIH, Fa) 33 small woodcuts in the text. Single line borders at top & bottom of each page; double-line borders on each side of page. Ten columns; 19 characters per column. All columns of text divided by lines. 52 folding leaves. Three parts in one vol. (with consecutive pagination). Large 8vo (282 x 200 mm.), orig. wrappers stained dark brown with fermented persimmon juice (wrappers rubbed & tired), new stitching. [Japan]: a gozan-ban of the late Muromachi era (16th century). The third-earliest medical book to be printed in Japan. This is an extremely rare, late Muromachi-era edition (a gozan-ban, with no copy in WorldCat) of one of the major Chinese texts on the pulse and diagnostic methods of the Song dynasty. Shi was a Southern Song dynasty doctor; this work was first published in China in 1241 (although no copy of that edition seems to have survived). According to Prof. Makoto Mayanagi of the Department of the History of Medicine at the Kitasato Institute (see his article "Nicchukan koiseki no tokucho to kanren" ["The Characteristics and Relations Between Old Medical Books of Japan, China and Korea"], online resource), the first medical book printed in Japan was Xiong Zongli's Yi shu da quan [J.: Isho taizen] of 1528. Xiong's Su jie ba shi yi Nan jing [Zokukai hachijuichi nankyo] followed in 1536. Our undated edition is the third to be printed. Since ancient times, traditional Chinese medicine has relied on five main diagnostic skills to make a judgment regarding the health of a patient: visual inspection (including the tongue), olfaction, learning the medical history of the patient, palpation, and the taking of the pulse. In this tradition, there are some 29 pulse types (Shi describes 33), including the floating pulse, scattered pulse, hollow pulse, deep pulse, hidden pulse, firm pulse, slow pulse, moderate pulse, swift pulse, surging pulse, thready pulse, long pulse, short pulse, feeble pulse, weak pulse, faint pulse, replete pulse, slippery pulse, stirred pulse, unsmooth pulse, wiry pulse, tight pulse, tympanic pulse, soggy pulse, irregularly intermittent pulse, irregular pulse, irregular-rapid pulse, and intermittent pulse. Correct interpretation of the pulse took years of practice and experience to master. In this work, Shi explains how to make a diagnosis and employs a complicated pulse system. He covers 33 types of pulses; each of the 33 text woodcuts depicts the characteristics of a certain pulse. Shi discusses the five organs, the twelve meridians, the varieties of irregular pulses and their relationships to certain diseases (including typhoid, fevers, diabetes, diarrhea, intestinal problems, hemorrhoids, cough, stroke, insanity, cholera, internal bleeding, and poisoning), methods of diagnosing internal diseases, various symptoms (sweating, nausea, palpitations, etc.), obstetrical and pediatric matters, etc., etc. The series of small woodcuts in the second part depicts in a most interesting way the kinds of irregular pulses. As mentioned above, this is a so-called gozan-ban, which were exclusively Chinese Buddhist and secular texts. "Gozan-ban is a general term embracing all those books published by monks of the Zen sect, chiefly at the five Zen monasteries at Kamakura and the five at Kyoto, over a period of more than 200 years between mid-Kamakura and late Muromachi. The appearance of the printed page in most Gozan editions follows a distinctly Chinese style. The effect is somewhat dense and crowded, caused by packing the Chinese characters tightly together with more regard for economy of space than for aesthetic effect. In this the Gozan editions differ markedly from all other early Japanese printed books, which are more generously spaced. The reasons for this are twofold: the books tend to be chiefly reprints of Chinese Song and Yuan editions, and during the fourteenth century many Chinese blockcutters came over from the continent and practised their craft on a semi-commercial basis and on a fairly large scale."-K.B. Gardner, "Centres of Printing in Medieval Japan: Late Heian to Early Edo period" in British Library Occasional Papers 11. Japanese Studies (ed. Yu-Ying Brown), London: 1990, p. 164. This was a very popular text in Japan, and there were several 17th-century editions, including at least one movable type book. A very good copy, preserved in a chitsu. Some minor staining and browning. Ten leaves with marginal gnawing by a hungry mouse. Minor marginal worming, and final 18 leaves with more worming touching characters (which remain entirely legible). With the seals of Obama Toshie (1889-1972), journalist, politician, and important bibliophile. His library was sold upon his death. ❧ See Kazuma Kawase's bibliography of movable type books printed in Japan (1967), Vol. II, p. 681, where he describes our edition.
book (2)

Illustrated manuscript panorama on paper (540 x 1540 mm.), multiple large sheets joined, brush & color washes, depicting one of the earliest confrontations between the United States and Japan

(BIDDLE, James, Commodore) [Japan]: ca. 1846-47. A superbly rendered panorama that records one of the first official encounters between the United States and Japan, preceding Commodore Matthew C. Perry's first expedition by seven years. This is a remarkable depiction of an early meeting of the two nations: Japan represented by an array of small junks and a network of coastal defenses, and America by two much larger warships with numerous cannons. Small Japanese boats intercepted the two ships just off the coast of Uraga. In July 1845, Commodore James Biddle (1783-1848) concluded negotiations for the Treaty of Wanghia between the United States and China. With two ships, the USS Columbus and USS Vincennes, he then sailed to Uraga Channel, close to the Japanese capital, Edo. This went against the conventional wisdom that he head to Nagasaki, where the Dutch enjoyed a monopoly on trade with Japan. Stationed in the channel, on 20 July 1846, Biddle made an official request to Japanese representatives to initiate Japanese-American trade relations. His efforts were ultimately unsuccessful, and he set sail for the United States on the 29th. Our large drawing documents the substantial military response Japanese clans mounted following reports of a foreign expedition headed to Edo. Foreigners were not permitted to enter Edo Bay, and the joint navies of the Kawagoe and Oshi fiefdoms stopped the American warships just short of the bay. Troops sent by other fiefdoms are labeled along the coast. There are also seven odaiba (fortresses), some on artificial islands, at regular intervals. These positions were the backbone of Japan's defensive strategy. The text in the bottom right allows us to precisely date the arrival and departure of the American squadron. In near fine condition; some wear at the folds and two small holes, not touching the illustrations. ❧ For an extensive early American report on Biddle's expedition, see the U.S. Naval Institute's Proceedings (July 1905), Vol. 31/3/115, accessed 9 March 2023.