A hundred years ago, more than 10 million cultural relics in China were lost overseas from the yangyang antique country, and on the road to the transportation of massive cultural relics, one of Japan's largest Chinese antique dealers came into our sight...
Statue of Sadajiro Yamanaka
Calling him an antique predator, or an antique giant, in short, he is the golden rice bowl of China's ruined royal family, an intermediary who makes enough money in turmoil. The Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce is his trading place.
In 1894 he opened a branch of the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce in New York, then in Boston and Chicago, in 1900 in London, and in 1905 in Paris.
This guy was able to get into the industry thanks to the cultivation of his antique dad. At the age of 13, he joined the antique dealer Yamanaka Yoshibei, became an apprentice for 10 years, and also became a door-to-door son-in-law, and since then, Yamanaka Has since led the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce to show his fists in Europe, the United States and the Chinese market.
Sitting on the throne of the Qing Dynasty in China, Satjiro Yamanaka
In 1901, the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce set up an office in Beijing's Dongcheng Maxian Hutong, which at that time was a treasure trove of antiques and the most active trading market, and at the intersection of the change of government and opposition, he ate the fat meat of gongwangfu.
In 1917, Yamanaka Seijiro purchased Prince Su's 300-square-meter courtyard as the Beijing branch of the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce, which was headed by Yushiro Takada, including 4 Japanese clerks and 15 Chinese employees.
After the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty, prince Puwei and Prince Su Shanqi and others tried in vain to restore the Qing Dynasty, and had to become a seller in 1912, and The news received by Yamanaka Dingjiro and his friends came to Prince Gong's mansion to see the rare treasures here.
In 1912, Yamanaka took a group photo in front of the main hall of Prince Gong's mansion and recorded the "digging" of goods: the spacious courtyard had rows of treasure houses, including the Ruyi Library, the Calligraphy and Painting Library, the Bronze Vault, and dozens of other rooms, in which countless jade jewelry could be seen, as much as rice in the rice shop.
The rear cover of Prince Gong's mansion was once the treasure house of Hezhen, but it is not known whether Puwei put the treasure here at that time.
This is a godsend for antique dealers, who said triumphantly: "No antique dealer will have such an opportunity in his life!" In the end, he bought all the bronzes, ceramics, jades, and grandfather clocks of the Gong dynasty except for calligraphy and paintings, and spent a total of 340,000 oceans on Yamanaka Dingjiro.
According to the research of Chinese and Japanese scholars, Puwei sold more than 2,000 pieces of treasures to the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce, almost hollowing out the treasures of the Gongwang Mansion. This gambling behavior also brought great glory to Yamanaka.
Pen holder from prince Gong's collection, auctioned in New York in 1913
The cunning Yamanaka Quickly transported it back to Japan and sorted it into three batches. One shipment was shipped to the United States for auction, one to the United Kingdom for auction (211 pieces), a batch to remain in Japan and the United States for retail sale in antique shops, leaving some rare items in his own collection.
Bronze from Prince Gong's collection, auctioned in New York in 1913
In 1913, the American Art Association Gallery auctioned this batch of Gongwangfu cultural relics with the theme of "The Most Precious Treasure of Art in the World" and printed a gilded catalogue for auction. The auction result caused a sensation in the United States and was considered the best collection of Chinese art, with 536 cultural relics sold for more than $270,000, which was a record-breaking astronomical number at the time.
A special catalogue of the 1913 Prince Gong Collection in New York at the United States Auction
In this auction, a top Western Zhou bronze pot was purchased by a capitalist, Friel, who also bid for a bronze urn from the late Shang Dynasty. From 1894 to 1919 he had a collection of 58 bronzes. It was displayed at the Furrell Museum of Art in Washington, D.C., so that posterity could see these two heavy objects of Prince Gong's mansion.
Collector Furyr, bronze pot in the center and bronze urn on the right
In recent years, the Gongwangfu Antiques handled by the Shanzhong Chamber of Commerce have returned to the art auction market, and in 2010, Christie's Hong Kong sold a pair of Qingqianlong rosewood screens, which sold for a high price of 32.02 million Hong Kong dollars.
Qingqianlong imperial rosewood lacquer inlaid jade round light seat screen
On April 19, at the fifth anniversary auction held by the Japan Artists Association, the ivory weaving painting enamel palace fan was from the old collection of GongWangfu.
It entered Japan through the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce, then flowed into the antiques dealer Fukusai and was transferred to the Hasegawa Kenzo clan, which is now valued at 660,000 yuan.
During the war, Yamanaka Tsujiro hollowed out the antiques of the Gong Palace, allowing him to earn enough money. At that time, other famous and prestigious families were also forced to sell their property due to their poor living conditions. Among them was Shen Jifu, a financial tycoon and antique collector, who sold all the cultural relics in his collection for 31 years to the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce during the "September 18 Incident".
But Yamanaka Washujiro was not a pure antique dealer, and his most notorious act was to lure the monks guarding the grottoes with money, robbing and destroying Buddha statues in the Tianlongshan Grottoes in Shanxi.
A group photo of a Buddha statue in the Tianlongshan Grottoes in Shanxi
In 1918, the Japanese scholar Sekino Sadashi found it and published the expedition report to the world. After hearing the news, In 1924 and 1926, He returned to the Tenryusan Grottoes twice, cut off more than 40 Buddha heads, and sent them to Japan in boxes.
The current appearance of tianlongshan grottoes in Taiyuan, Shanxi, it was excavated in the Eastern Wei, Northern Qi, Sui and Tang Dynasties, with a total of more than 500 statues, 1144 Buddha carvings, murals and so on. In November 1932, the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce held the "World Ancient Art Exhibition" at the Tokyo Fine Arts Association in Japan, and auctioned the tenryuyama stone Buddhas to the public.
In the autumn auction of Christie's in New York in 2008, there was a statue of the "Buddha Head of the Lord of the West Wall of Cave No. 10 of Tianlong Mountain", which was snatched back by Shanxi businessman Xu Xing for 6 million. After more than 70 years, he finally returned to his homeland in China.
It was stolen by Yamanaka and was bid by local collector Wat Moles at an auction in the U.S. government in 1943.
The head of the Buddha on the west wall of Cave No. 10 of Tianlong Mountain
Yamanaka Teijiro spent more than 30 years in China's Taobao, and finally due to japan's defeat in the war, three branches of the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce were closed by the US government, confiscated and auctioned in 1943, and the antique giant crocodile has since collapsed and walked off the stage of history.
Seijiro Yamanaka (first from right) poses with Americans
More than 30 years of the Republic of China, is the most important period of China's cultural relics loss, in the tens of millions of cultural relics loss road, there are many traders like Yamanaka Dingjiro, bringing Chinese antiques to the world. At the auction of the fifth anniversary of the Japan Artists Association, we saw the Chinese antiques of these collectors.
Exterior view of The Willow's Old Mansion
Qing Kangxi Filigree enamel three sheep beast foot through the ear large bottle
Source: The old collection of the Yanagi family, a well-known collector in Kyoto
Estimate: RMB 660,000
Southern Song Dynasty Longquan Celadon Double Phoenix Ear Bottle
The old collection of the famous gate of the Kansai tea ceremony in Japan
Estimate: RMB 192,500
Qingqianlong Tea tea glaze three sheep zun
Knowledge: "Qianlong Year of the Great Qing Dynasty" seal book paragraph
Bibliography: Exhibition of Korean Ancient Art in China, Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce, 1934, Figure 622
Realized price: RMB 2,760,000
The Qianlong Tea Of the Qing Dynasty is glazed with three sheep statues, from the "Exhibition of Ancient Korean Art in China" published by the Yamanaka Chamber of Commerce in 1934. Sanyang Kaitai, because of the ancient "sheep" and "yang" through the holiday, also known as "Sanyang Kaitai" in the "I Ching" said: "October is Kun Gua, the image of pure yin." November is the resurrection, and Yiyang was born in Xia. December is Lingua, and the second yang is under. Next month is Tai Gua, Sanyang Daxia. "It means that winter comes to spring, the yin disappears and the yang grows, and all things recover, so Sanyang Kaitai has an auspicious image."
In addition, the Chinese patriarchal society also has the idea of "the king is the yang" and "the father is the yang", so the ornament is highly respected by the royal family and has become a classic pattern of official porcelain. Since the Yin Shang period, it has been cast on bronze with sheep's head as an ornament (pictured), and this product is copied from the pre-Qin bronze sheep statue, which is an antique product of the Imperial Kiln Factory in the early years of Qianlong. At that time, the monochrome glazed porcelain of the Imperial Kiln inherited the legacy of the previous dynasty and achieved remarkable achievements, representing the best quality of monochrome glaze in the Qianlong period.
According to the "Document on the Work of the Internal Affairs Office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs" dated June 25 of the third year of Qianlong, the Qianlong Emperor issued the "Factory Official Glaze Sanyang Zun" for Tang Ying to "burn and send it as usual", and this product should be one of the examples. The shape is strong and strong, the mouth is skimmed outward, and the double convex string patterns between the neck and abdomen are decorated in three groups, which makes the shape rich in line changes. The shoulders are stacked with three sheep heads for ears, and the sheep's head is raised and the form is simple. The whole body is full of tea glaze, the enamel is fat, the color is deep and simple, and it is a good tool for the early Qianlong imperial kiln under the Tang Ying pottery, which is very rare.
Ming copper wrong gold and silver three-legged cover cup
See:
1. The Complete Works of Chinese Art - Arts and Crafts, Ed., 5 Bronze Ware (Part 2), Cultural Relics Publishing House, 1985, P51, Figure 61;
2. "Western Qing Dynasty Ancient Jianshu - Volume VII (Volumes 29 to 32)", edited by Meng Fan, Beijing Arts and Crafts Publishing House, January 2011, p290;
3. New York, 1913 "Prince Gong Collection Special Auction of Chinese Precious Cultural Relics".
Realized price: RMB 690,000