Rare Antique Japanese

NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE

NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE
NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE

NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE

The Netsuke Collection of W. An Exhibition of Important Netsuke.

Books, Antiques, Oriental Antiques, Japanese Antiques, Netsuke, Lacquer, Inro, Sagemono. 117 objects sumptuously catalogued and illustrated in full colour of choice netsuke from an early post-war collection formed by W.

Publisher: Barry Davies Oriental Art Ltd; First Edition (1994). Language: Bilingual - English / Japanese. Very Good - DJ shows some signs of shelf-wear/storage.

F special interest, this copy, I believe, was the original exhibition copy as it has small stickers to show which items were placed into the exhibit together with markings to show the return of the Netsuke to W. As with all Barry Davies books, this book doesn't fail in providing breath-taking images and in-depth descriptions. No Netsuke collector, enthusiast or dealer should be without this book.

It should prove to be one of the most invaluable references you could own and will be of significant interest to museums, curators, collectors, dealers and historians. This book lavishly illustrates and provides full details including signatures of 117 Netsuke of the utmost highest quality. Each Netsuke exhibited includes full description, size, signature, which school it was made by and date made. Many of the pieces exhibited are quite superb and some are true masterpieces. Works Exhibited by Netsuke Artists.

Even after all these years the name still conjures up for me images of an aged craftsman lovingly working a piece of wood into a little treasure. I have been collecting these little treasures for 30 years. A small, dimly lit shop with no counter, just a few shelves of antiques and a couple of stools to sit on and negotiate.

The netsuke felt good to touch. A Junishi (Japanese zodiac) signed by the mastercarver Masatsugu, but, the dealer said, perhaps a 20th century copy. And the price was reasonable. So I bought my first netsuke. But these were signed by different masters. Eventually I found the source, an 82 year old craftsman delicately carving on instructions from dealers!

Craftsman have to eat, and the dealers insist on names they can sell', he told me. Please recarve the signature of the artist who carved this beautiful piece', I requested, and he put his own name to the netsuke I started my collection with. It is now signed Meigyokusai on a red lacquer tablet. Like any work of art that becomes valuable and collectable, netsuke attract copiers. But if the work is beautiful, it has a value in its own right.

Art is always art, even if it is newly created. Over the years and through study I came to recognise how to distinguish the works of the old masters, and of the new.

I collected both with equal enthusiasm, loving them for their quality, style and humour. I hope that the illustrations of my collection will help you distinguish those pieces that you particularly like, and that the descriptions, and biographies of the artists will help you determine the shape of your collection. - William G Bosshard - Tokyo, June 1994. Willi is one of the last great early post-war netsuke collectors, and I feel a sense of great achievement that I have been able to prize from him these beloved pieces. How it was managed would reveal far too much!

However, it did happily coincide with the announcement just recently that Willi was to retire from his position as Senior Managing Director of Nestlé in Japan, and leave that country, his home for 27 years, to live in Switzerland, the country where he was born, where he is now pursuing other interests. Willi Bosshard was born on July 20 1936 in Ruti, a small town near Zurich, into a family traditionally involved in collecting works of art.

His education, business acumen and command of languages inevitably drew him to a major multi-national company, and he joined Nestlé SA, the worlds largest food company, in 1958. This was a truly momentous year for Willi, since it was also when he met his wife, Ursula (Uschi). In January 1967 Willi was sent by Nestlé to Japan to set up a special food services division, and lived there, first in Kobe, and then Tokyo, until this year. He married Uschi in 1968, and they have one son, Nicholas, who started his own netsuke collection, under Willi's guidance, at the age of 9!

I first met Willi in Kobe in 1979, and marvelled at his collection. Many of his best pieces had been acquired through his contacts in Japan, surprisingly an unusual source for western collectors in those days. Happily, I discovered that I had things other than netsuke in common with Willi during my visit. Willi is a renowned bon vivant, gourmet and wine connoisseur. I became better acquainted with him in 1986 when my wife Christine and I attended a memorable event his 50th Birthday, the celebrated'Fifty Years Of Willi Bosshard'.

Willi organised an extraordinary party. He invited over 100 guests to Zurich, then travelled on the Orient Express, touring the Swiss countryside for 12 hours, with Anton Moshimann preparing a ten-course dinner. Willi was the perfect host, charming, fun, vibrant and mischievous.

His outward jocularity belied the serious work put into the organisation of this event, and the tremendous attention to detail involved. I observed in him the same attitude that he applied to his collecting. Willi loves the fun of acquiring netsuke; he enjoys stories of their discovery, and delights in the intrigue surrounding the relationship between dealers and collectors.

However, beneath lies a serious connoisseur, with great academic knowledge and appreciation of quality, as is apparent from his collection. He is a great character, and as eccentric as most other good collectors. Again, this apparently flippant request hid a serious motive. The weight of a netsuke is the perfect indication of its mass, and therefore size. This was especially important to Willi as his taste developed towards the earlier, bolder, and larger pieces.

He was also very serious, as ever, about accuracy. On one occasion I sent him an Kyoto rat, having previously informed him of the weight. When Willi received it he called me, to enquire by which airline I had sent it. Willi, ever the gourmet, then informed me that he would never fly with that particular airline again. Intrigued, I enquired why, to be told that the cuisine had to be awful the rat had lost 0.2 grams during the journey! A reprimand delivered with his usual panache. I have arranged the order of the collection in the catalogue to commence with Zodiac animals. It was appropriate to start with rats, since not only is it the first animal of the Zodiac cycle, Willi was born in the Year of the Rat, and his penchant for netsuke of this subject is legendary.

Also, in deference to the great friendships, through netsuke or otherwise, that Willi formed during the happy years he lived in his country of adoption, I have translated the text fully into Japanese, the first time as far as I know that this has been done for an exhibition catalogue. My usual thanks to my superb team in assisting me in the preparation of this catalogue: my wife, Christine; Valerie Newman, Malcolm Fairley; Richard Barker; Tsumugi Shoji; Colin Murray; Catherine Murray; Reneé Yeater and Dianne O'Bryan. Finally, special thanks to Willi and Uschi Bosshard for giving me this prized opportunity of cataloguing the first part of their collection. Thank you for viewing our item Please see our other items for sale.

As with all our items, when they are gone, they are gone. We wont be getting any new stock. All our books are dispatched in cardboard protective mailers, not jiffy bags. Full tracking details will be provided. We try to answer queries within 24 hours.

We provide personalised customer service and want you to have an easy pleasant experience purchasing from us. Usually, carefully reading the items description details and viewing all the images should answer any questions that you may have. Books are carefully scanned to provide you with images of the item you will be purchasing; however sometimes you may see grey areas or distorted text which is due to the book not being completely flat on the scanner.

Please take into consideration that out of print and rare books may exceed the original published cover price and that older books may not be in the same condition as brand new off the press books and may show some signs of storage/age/shelfwear. The item "NETSUKE Collection of W. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE" is in sale since Wednesday, September 6, 2017. This item is in the category "Books, Comics & Magazines\Antiquarian & Collectable". The seller is "cornercupboarduk" and is located in Newton Abbot. This item can be shipped to United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Australia, United States, Bahrain, Canada, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, China, Israel, Hong Kong, Norway, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Bermuda, Bolivia, Barbados, Brunei darussalam, Cayman islands, Ecuador, Egypt, Guernsey, Gibraltar, Guadeloupe, French guiana, Iceland, Jersey, Jordan, Cambodia, Liechtenstein, Sri lanka, Macao, Monaco, Maldives, Martinique, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Peru, Paraguay, Reunion, Saudi arabia, South africa, United arab emirates, Ukraine, Chile, Bahamas, Colombia, Costa rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Kuwait, Panama, Philippines, Qatar, Trinidad and tobago, Uruguay, Viet nam.

  • Special Attributes: 1st Edition
  • Modified Item: No
  • Year Printed: 1994
  • Interest: Oriental Antiques, Japanese Antiques, Netsuke
  • Region: Asia
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: United Kingdom
  • Personalised: No
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Original/Facsimile: Original
  • Antique Topic: Oriental Japanese Antiques, Netsuke, Lacquer, Inro, Sagemono
  • Place of Publication: UK
  • Language: English
  • Non-Fiction Subject: Books on Collecting
  • Author: W. Bosshard
  • ISBN 13: 9781399772365
  • Publisher: Barry Davies Oriental Art
  • Signed: No
  • Character Family: N/a
  • Fiction Subject: Netsuke
  • ISBN 10: 1399772368
  • Original/Reproduction: Original


NETSUKE Collection of W. G. BOSSHARD (Barry Davies Oriental Art) 1399772368 RARE