Search our Site


Illustration of a sparrow from "Bairei Hyakucho Gafu" - "Bairei's Album of 100 Birds" by Bairei Kono

Illustration of a sparrow from Bairei Hyakucho Gafu - Baireis Album of 100 Birds by Bairei Kono

Illustration of a sparrow from "Bairei Hyakucho Gafu" - "Bairei's Album of 100 Birds"

Bairei Kono

Title

Illustration of a sparrow from "Bairei Hyakucho Gafu" - "Bairei's Album of 100 Birds"

 
Artist

Bairei Kono

 
Year
1881  
Technique
color woodcut 
Image Size
8 1/4 x 5 7/8" image size 
Signature
artist's chop and red seal in the block, lower left and right 
Edition Size
not stated 
Annotations
 
Reference
 
Paper
 
State
 
Publisher
 
Inventory ID
22143 
Price
SOLD
Description

From a publication of three hand-bound volumes of 36 bird illustrations, later followed up with a supplemental set of volumes in 1884. Note the original binding holes along the left-hand margin.

Edward Strange wrote of Bairei's three-volume publication of bird illustrations, "...perhaps the best illustrations of bird-life ever cut on wood. They are printed each from six or seven blocks, the shading even of the drawing being to some extent thus provided for, instead of having been left to the skill of the printer." ("Japanese Illustration: A History of the Arts of Wood-cutting and Colour", Edward Fairbrother Strnage, London, G. Bell and Sons, 1897, pg. 105)