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Monet, van Gogh and Klimt are the famous names
usually associated with the influence of Japanese
artistic sensibility in the West. All three, as well as
so many of their contemporaries, owned Japanese
pieces and were the first to acknowledge their debt
to Japan’s art and objects in their work. But it was not
only such figures in the forefront of the European art
movement that were caught up in this enthusiasm for
‘Things Japanese’. George Audsley (1838 – 1925), an
architect, and James Bowes (1834-1899), consul to
Japan and a wealthy wool broker, both fell under the
spell of Japanese ceramics and their mystery. Bowes,
a client of Audsleys’, was the owner of most of the
pieces pictured in the extraordinary volumes that bear
both their names. While academic scholarship of the
dating of the pieces was in its infancy there can be no
doubt as to the importance of the publication of The
Keramic Art of Japan in 1875. It is a highly important
documentary record and a fine tribute to the quality
of Satsuma created in early Meiji (1868 – 1912) times.
The magnificent chromolithographs and autotypes
were at the forefront of modern printing and stand
as a record of the highpoints of Japanese ceramic art
as viewed by collectors of the era. If Satsuma ware
was the golden fleece of the East, then Bowes was
its Jason, searching throughout Japan for examples of
the legendary Satsuma ceramics that were so difficult
to find. It is hard to underestimate the importance the
arts and crafts of Japan had in helping the Japanese
economy onto its feet and enable it to compete with
the established world powers. At one point in the
1870s the applied arts made up 25% of all Japanese
exports and Satsuma was the flagship, significantly
contributing to the effort. This collection of Satsuma
of the type seen in the Audsley & Bowes volumes
has been carefully assembled over several years and
the accompanying pieces of Satsuma and other arts
demonstrate the variety and quality of artistic merit
created during the Meiji period. It is a pleasure to see
another publication on the subject and I am sure that it
will increase awareness and appreciation of the skills of
the Meiji artisan.
Louis Lawrence ©
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