(attrib.) Tosa Mitsusuke, “Small Bird on a Flowering Plum Tree”, circa 1700

(Attributed to) Tosa Mitsusuke (土佐光祐) (1675–1710)—child of Tosa Hirochika—or an artist from his circle

The attribution to Tosa Mitsusuke is based on advice from the dealer from whom I originally purchased the painting many years ago, and the mention of this artist in a Google translation of the accompanying text.

Based on the measurement details given in the inscription at upper right (approximately 272.7 x 18.8 cm) this small painting may be a copy of a painting conforming to those proportions.

“Small Bird on a Flowering Plum Tree”, circa 1700

Technical Details & Condition:

Ink painting on fine washi paper, backed on what appears to be an early support sheet that is unevenly trimmed. The composition follows the tanzaku (短冊) format—a traditional narrow vertical shape originating in the Edo period (1603–1868). This format was often used for poetry, such as haiku, and designed for display on wooden house pillars to inspire reflection and hope.

The style of this painting exhibits refined touches characteristic of the Tosa school—most notably the precise, sensitively drawn outlines and the decorative flattening of forms.
The artwork remains reasonably unfaded for its age, and the sheet is in fair to good condition, free of tears, folds, or significant stains. However, the old mounting glue partly shines through on the front of the sheet, and the double layers of backing sheets are partially separating at the upper left corner.

Dimensions:

• Sheet: 28.1x 19.6 cm
• Image borderline: 27.8 x 7.9 cm

Inscriptions at upper right:

• Medium: 絹本 (Silk on paper)
• Dimensions: Length nine shaku six sun, width six sun nine bu (approximately 272.7 x 18.8 cm)
• Artist's Title: Tosa Sho-goi Danjo Shochu Fujiwara Mitsuyoshi（土佐正五位弹正少忠藤原光芳）
• Year: Fire Monkey Year, Autumn

Price & Shipping:

AU$296 (approximately US$207.87 / €175.67 / £151.63), including worldwide express shipping. Import duties and taxes are the buyer’s responsibility.

If you are interested in acquiring this small, rare, and exceptionally beautiful painting—an exquisite example of early 18th-century Japanese art—please contact me at oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com. I am happy to provide a secure PayPal invoice for a seamless purchase.

Jakob Gillberg, “Study of a Foot”, c. 1760, after Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre

Jakob Gillberg (or Jacob Gillberg) (1724–1793)

“Study of a Foot”, circa 1760

Technical Details & Condition:

Chalk-manner (manière de crayon) engraving printed in sanguine ink on laid paper featuring an Auvergne region watermark. This is plate 11, after the design by Jean Baptiste Marie Pierre (1714–1789), and possibly published by the wife and cousin of François II Chéreau (Veuve Chéreau, active 1755–1782)—see a related print held by the British Museum featuring the same inscribed lettering: https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1895-0617-330. Alternatively, it may have been published in the series, “Ve Cahier de Principes du Design d'après Nature” (Principles of Drawing from Nature)—see a similar engraving published in this series held by the Rijksmuseum: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/200461346.

The impression is strong, with no sign of wear to the printing plate. The image is trimmed within the platemark on the sides and lower edge, with a margin at the top. The sheet is in excellent, nearly pristine condition for its large size and age—free of tears, holes, folds, abrasions, or significant stains.

Dimensions:

• Sheet: 41.8 x 31 cm

Lettering in Plate:

• Upper left: “N^o. 11”
• Lower left: “Pierre fecit.”
• Lower right: “Gillberg Sculpsit.”

Price & Shipping:

AU$236 (approximately US$165.81 / €140.29 / £121.03), including worldwide express shipping. Import duties and taxes are the buyer’s responsibility.

If you are interested in acquiring this large engraved study of a foot—created to be a guide for art students to copy and examine the subtle complexities of foot anatomy—please contact me at oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com. I am happy to provide a secure PayPal invoice for a seamless purchase.

Eugène Juillerat, “Wooded Landscape”, c. late-1800s

Eugène Juillerat (1856–1933)—a close friend of John Singer Sargent (1856-1925). Interestingly, Juillerat and Sargent were the same age, and both studied under Carolus-Duran [1837–1917] in Paris.

I previously listed another lithograph by Juillerat—a satirical “tongue-in-cheek” print dedicated to Kaiser Wilhelm II, suggesting that the symbolic eagle of Germany during World War I was actually a common vulture. See https://www.printsandprinciples.com/2022/02/eugene-juillerats-lithograph-your-black.html.

“Wooded Landscape” (descriptive title only), circa late-1800s

Technical Details & Condition:

Lithograph on buff washi paper, backed with a support sheet. This is an artist’s proof, pencil-signed by Juillerat and inscribed in pencil: “à l'ami A. Sourille [or ‘Souville’].” (To my friend A. Sou[r/v]ille.)
The impression is strong and well-printed—nearly faultless. Aside from minor handling marks in the margins, the sheet is in excellent condition with no significant stains.

Dimensions:

• Sheet: 53.6 x 39 cm
• Image borderline: 45.4 x 32 cm

Price & Shipping:

AU$289 (approximately US$199.93 / €168.74 / £146.32), including worldwide express shipping. Import duties and taxes are the buyer’s responsibility.

If you are interested in acquiring this exceptionally rare, pencil-signed, proof-state lithograph—note that it is so rare that I have been unable to find another copy of it in any online repository—please contact me at oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com. I am happy to provide a secure PayPal invoice for a seamless purchase.

Matthaeus Merian, “Natives Roasting ‘Dragons’” & “Ambush by Native Women”, 1655

Matthaeus Merian (also known as Matthäus Merian I) (1593–1650), or possibly Theodoor de Bry (aka Théodore de Bry, Dietrich de Bry, and Dirk de Bry) (1528–1598)

Recto (page 219): “Ambush by Native Women”, 1655
The text describes a Spanish encounter with the local inhabitants in their village: “… they came across a place which, like Venice [hence the name Venezuela], was built on the water and wooden piles, it had about twenty dwellings, like the bells of a fortress. From which bridges went so that they could come together in and around. … twelve canoes made from whole trees came towards them [the Spanish] … and brought 16 maidens with them … pretending to be their best friends; a great crowd also swam from their houses to the ships, from which they could still not draw any evil suspicion. …the others also moved further away from the ships, and began to shoot violently at the Spaniards with their bows. … others, who had swum from their houses to the ships, carried their spears hidden under the water, from which their treachery could then be sufficiently inferred.”
The page is titled: “Von Erfindung derselben durch underschiedliche Schiffart” (Of the discovery of the same through different navigation).

Verso (page 220): “Natives Roasting ‘Dragons’”, 1655

For those wondering about the seemingly fantastical depiction of winged-serpents (dragons)—the artist’s creative representations of what we now know are iguanas—bound together in the lower left foreground, the German text explains that the Spaniards investigating the local inhabitants’ culture “found many live snakes … tied at the feet with ropes and their mouths bound with cords, so that they could not harm people, just as one is accustomed to muzzle bears, dogs, horses, and other wild animals. They looked so frightening that the Spaniards did not want to touch them. They make their bread from fish, which they first boil, then pound, and then dry again over the coals. And this bread is good to eat and tastes good.”
The page is titled: “West Indianischer Historien Ander Theil” (Second Part of the West Indian Histories).

Technical Details & Condition:

Etchings on fine laid paper with full margins and German letterpress text on recto and verso. This original book-leaf was published in Frankfurt am Main in 1655 by the Merian heirs within Johann Ludwig Gottfried’s “Newe Welt und Americanische Historien”. The two featured etchings (recto and verso) appear on pages numbered 219, and 220. See: https://archive.org/details/neweweltvndameri00gott/page/218/mode/2up.

The etchings are strong, well-printed impressions, showing no signs of wear to the printing plate. The sheet is in excellent condition—free of tears, holes, folds, abrasions, or significant stains.

Dimensions:

• Sheet: 30.9 x 19.4 cm

Price & Shipping:

AU$251 (approximately US$175.81 / €147.85 / £128.14), including worldwide express shipping. Import duties and taxes are the buyer’s responsibility.

If you are interested in acquiring this historically important and visually compelling sheet of etchings documenting native Americans and Spanish interactions, please contact me at oz_jim@printsandprinciples.com. I am happy to provide a secure PayPal invoice for a seamless purchase.

This print has been sold