Japanese merchant’s catalogue of Chinese export furniture, with original mounted photographs.

[Japan] : M. Takamatsu, [c.1910]. Quarto, 250 x 190 mm, bound in Japanese folding accordion style, in the original wooden boards (textile coverings perished), wet stamp of the merchant ‘M. Takamatsu’ to front and rear pastedowns, comprising [38] leaves of thick card with 152 sepia printing-out paper photographs of Chinese export furniture, probably destined for the American market, including ornately carved wooden cabinets, bureaus, tables, chairs, beds, dressers etc.; the photographs are mounted in pairs recto and verso of each leaf, accompanied by printed labels (in English!) completed in manuscript giving product numbers and dimensions and with provision for price in Yen (this is left blank on each label); mild scattered foxing to the leaves (mostly confined to the edges of the paper labels); the photographs are in uniformly good condition throughout.

This rare commercial survivor from around the end of the Meiji period in Japan represents a veritable treasure trove of examples of late Qing Chinese export furniture.