Archives: Art For Sale

A Fine Old Japanese Natural Burlwood Hibachi or Hand Warmer

This beautiful old Japanese Hibatchi  or Hand Warmer is made from a natural burl form with an inward curved lip like a wave, usually inside there was a copper lining now missing, the whole is mounted on a thick flat cedar base. Hibachi were traditionally used during Tea Ceremonies and as a source of heat in the winter months.  This Hibatchi is dating from the late 19th Century.

The Japanese word for the tea ceremony, chanoyu, literally means “hot water for tea,” the practice involves much more than its name implies. Chanoyu is a ritualized, secular practice in which tea is consumed in a specialized space with codified procedures. The act of preparing and drinking matcha, the powdered green tea used in the ceremony, is a choreographed art requiring many years of study to master. The intimate setting of the tea room, which is usually only large enough to accommodate four or five people, is modeled on a hermit’s hut. In this space, often surrounded by a garden, the participants temporarily withdraw from the mundane world.

In the tea room, the emphasis is on the interaction between the host, guests, and tea utensils. The host will choose an assemblage of objects specific to that gathering and use those utensils to perform the tea preparations in front of the guests. Each tea gathering is a unique experience, so a particular assemblage of objects and people is never repeated. The guests are expected to abide by tea room etiquette with regard to the gestures used to drink the tea and the appreciation of the utensils. When presented with a bowl of tea, a guest will notice and reflect upon the warmth of the bowl and the colour of the bright green matcha against the clay before he begins to drink.

The ceramics used in this context—tea bowls, water jars, flower vases, tea caddies and hibatchi  are functional tools valued for their practicality as well as artworks admired for their aesthetic qualities. A key element in this practice is the host’s connoisseur-ship skills; the host acquires a collection of objects that conform to a shared aesthetic standard and selects which objects to use in a particular gathering.

The natural wood form is Wabi-Sabi .  In Zen philosophy there are seven aesthetic principles for achieving Wabi-Sabi as listed below;

Fukinsei (不均斉): asymmetry, irregularity;

Kanso (簡素): simplicity;

Koko (考古): basic, weathered;

Shizen (自然): without pretence, natural;

Yugen (幽玄): subtly profound grace, not obvious;

Datsuzoku (脱俗): unbounded by convention, free;

I bought this object because I knew right away that I would never get tired of looking at it or touching the warm beautiful wood.

Provenance: The Todd Barlin Collection of Asian Art & Buddhist Art

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If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer 

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.

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A Superb Old Australian Tasmanian Indigenous Maireener Shell Necklace from the 19th Century 

This very beautiful Shell Necklace is made from the tiniest Shells by the indigenous women of Tasmania. The Necklace is made from the Maireener Shells or Rainbow Kelp Shells.  These iridescent shells were collected, dried, and strung into necklaces by Tasmania indigenous Women from ancient times until today.

Dating from the Victorian period in the mid to late 19th Century, they were very popular as souvenir memories from Tasmania and Australia in general.  These are strung on the strong cotton thread & are still in very good original condition.  Some of the colours like purple were dyed but the translucent shells are natural.

The National Museum of Australia  states

” Early European explorers remarked on the beauty of these treasures, and the esteem in which they were held. The French naturalist Jacques Labillardière, traveling with the d’Entrecasteaux expedition of 1791–94, observed women wearing ‘strings of brilliant pearly blue spiral shells upon their bare heads’.

In 1802 his countryman Jean-Baptiste Leschenault de la Tour, botanist on the Baudin expedition of 1800–04, was given a necklace ‘of small shells of glistening mother-of-pearl, threaded on a small cord made of bark and grass’ by a man from Bruny Island whom Leschenault thought was a chief.

The Baudin expedition artists Charles-Alexandre Lesueur and Nicolas Petit both drew shell necklaces. Petit’s portrait of Baraourou, a young man from Maria Island, shows him wearing a tight necklace.  Other 18th and 19th-century images show Tasmanian Aboriginal people wearing necklaces, including a photograph taken around 1866 of the leader and spokeswoman Truganini, who also made necklaces.

After colonization, women started making longer necklaces. In 1835, Benjamin Duterrau sketched Tanleboneyer, ‘a native of the district of Oyster Bay’, and Bruny Island man Woorraddy, Truganini’s husband, with long strands looped around their necks.

Provenance: Old Collection Australia.  The Todd Barlin Collection of New Guinea Oceanic Art.

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If you have a similar “object” for sale please contact me for the best price and honest advice by a Government approved valuer 

To see many more rare items and the finest masterpieces, please make an appointment with us to visit the gallery.