Japanese Watercolor / Ink

[randazzo1]

This little painting (may be a wood block - i’m having trouble telling) is on a super thin sheet of natural fiber paper and was folded before it was framed.

The signature appears to be a match for Utagawa Hiroshige - but I’m not sure. Would appreciate others’ thoughts. Thanks.

First photo is the painting, then a closeup of the signature, then a photo of a known Hiroshige signature from the net.

 

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[randazzo1]

Well stinko - it’s a hand painted copy. The gallery got right back to me. The signature was drawn in pencil and then painted over.

 

[Professor of Engineering]

I think it is a interesting painting, hope you didn't pay too much.

 

[randazzo1]

I think it is a interesting painting, hope you didn't pay too much.

Fortunately it was only $1.00. More fortunately, at the same time I also purchased these Qing Dynasty embroidered garment fragments which look like they will bring at least $250. They were $5.00 each and they are a matched pair - likely from a Skirt.

 

[GibH]

Some of the ukiyo-e prints go for really good money. They inspired some of the work by Monet, Gauguin, and Van Gogh. It's hard to find originals though. At the time, the Japanese didn't even consider them art. They were more like flyers. Even some of the modern woodblock prints are quite valuable, I read somewhere that there are only about 25 woodblock print masters left in Japan.

 

[randazzo1]

Gib - when I was researching them I was surprised at some of the auction results. That’s one of the issues I run into though - it’s hard to find an in-between venue to sell stuff. A piece that sells in a good auction house for $3k might only bring $170 on an ebay auction, but I can’t get the decent auction houses to take anything that’s worth less than $5k because I never have a collection - always a single piece not worth their time. Maybe an antique site like rubylane or firstdibs will be good.

 

[GibH]

Yeah, I've sold some pieces that didn't get what I was hoping for on ebay, but still turned a nice profit. I'm still learning about different forms of art, but I am (hopefully) passed the stage where I'm buying worthless junk. Even when I do, it's only a few bucks. I'm still looking for that one "retirement" piece though.