Exhibition of Oxford Stereoviews & Photographs

Over the past year we have been putting together one of the largest collections of unusual and early Stereoscopic views of the famous University City. The entire collection, alongside over 100 Victorian photographs will be on display in the gallery from the 27th of July. 

Private View: Thursday 26th July. 5:30-7:30pm 

Exhibition continues until Sunday 12th August, 2012. 10am - 6pm Monday -Saturday, 11am - 5pm Sunday.

For a sneak preview of the photographs and stereoviews to feature in the exhibition  

click here


Image:
[Oxford]
Alfred R.Mowbray
Albumen Photograph
Photographed by Mowbray, 2, Corn Market Steet, Oxford.[n.d. c. 1865]
Image 67 x 127 mm

A stereoview of the Oxford skyline taken from a roof near Carfax looking across towards the Radcliffe Camera, the Bodliean, New College and All Souls.

Alfred R. Mowbray was a photographer and bookseller who operated from No. 2 Cornmarket Street, Oxford c. 1859-1867. A R Mowbray and Co
Founded in Oxford in 1858 by Alfred R Mowbray (1824-75) as religious booksellers and suppliers of ecclesiastical fittings and perquisites of all kinds (including glass), the firm’s works and shop were there. A London branch, opened in 1873, was for many years in Margaret Street. Their work continued almost unchanged well into the C20, as a catalogue of their wares of 1926 shows and they supplied mainly churches of an Anglo-Catholic persuasion. The ecclesiastical fittings business was taken over by J Wippell and Co in the 1970s, but the name survives as a separate entity for religious works within Hatchard's bookshop in Piccadilly, like Mowbray’s now part of the Waterstones chain. In later years they did not design the goods they sold, but commissioned others, though few can be credited to a name. Among designers of glass they used A L Ward.

Shakespeare Prints

 

Thomas Ryder & Thomas Ryder Junr. after Henry Fuseli, R.A.

Shakespeare. Midsummer-Night’s Dream Act IV, Scene I. [The Pair]   

Stipple

Published Decr. 1, 1803, by J & J Boydell, at the Shakespeare Gallery, Pall Mall,  &  No. 90 Cheapside, London

Image 442 x 590 mm, Pl. 491 x 633 mm

£1300 [The Pair]   

[28873]

If you're enjoying the Hollow Crown series on BBC2 or have been to see the Creation Theatre's production of The Merchant of Venice at the Said Amphitheatre, then pop in and have a look at our stunning selection of Shakespeare prints. 

Such stuff as dreams are made on...

Print du Jour.

Todays print of the day is this fantastic view by the famous Japanese woodblock artist Andô Hiroshige (1797-1858).

Saijo in Iyo Province
Andô Hiroshige (1797-1858)
Nishiki-e woodblock
Publisher: Koshimuraya Heisuke. Date: 1855 [Hare 9]. First edition. 
Ôban tate-e [13 1/4 x 8 7/8 inches]

Carver: Hori Soji.

A flock of geese fly high above the rooftops of Saijo, a bustling castle town founded in 1636 by Hitotsuyanagi Naomori. Situated in Iyo province, Shikoku, now known as Ehime prefecture, the area was dominated by fishermen and sailors who played an important role in defending Japan against pirates and Mongol invasions.In the background is Mount Ishizuchi, one of the seven sacred mountains of Japan.

Hiroshige is usually connected with landscape and nature prints. Together with Hokusai he is considered as the dominant figure of printmaking in the first half of the nineteenth century.

Ando Hiroshige was born under the name of Ando Tokutaro. He was born in Edo (Tokyo) as the son of a samuri and fireman. At the age of twelve, both his parents died. Two years later, in 1811, the young Hiroshige received a chance to join the famous Utagawa painting school. At that time, the Ukiyo-e master Toyohiro Utagawa was the head of the studio. In 1812 he was formally allowed to take the name Utagawa. From then on he called himself Utagawa Hiroshige. In the Ukiyo-e literature he is usually referenced as Hiroshige Ando.

From 1830 onwards, Hiroshige Utagawa tried his luck with a new genre - landscape prints. One of his great masterpieces is the series Tokaido gojusan-tsugi no uchi created from 1833 to 1834 with 55 Hiroshige prints in Oban format. In the literature you will find slightly varying English translations such as “Fifty-three Stages of the Tokaido” or “From the Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido”.

The Tokaido was a coastal highway connecting Edo with Kyoto, the residence of the emperor. The stations must be imagined as a kind of turn-pikes where tolls had to be paid. The stations had lodges and simple restaurants where travelers could spend the night and get a meal.

The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido became the basis of Hiroshige's fame and commercial success. For the next twenty years he concentrated his efforts on landscape prints.

Ukiyo-e publishing in the last century was not a cultural institution subsidized by public funds, but rather a commercial business like book publishing or film production in our own time.  Similarly to such modern day industries print publishing in the Edo period was linked very much to the demand for prints and their popularity within the public realm.  Hiroshige’s previous success therefore led him on to produce more series of the Tokaido.

His last great series Meisho Edo Hyakkei, One Hundred Famous Views of Edo is considered as one of his greatest masterpieces.

During his lifetime Ando Hiroshige was well known and commercially successful but  Japanese society did not take too much notice of him. Comparable to Utamaro, his real reputation started with his discovery in Europe. Hiroshige Utagawa died at the age of 62 of cholera on October 12, 1858 in Edo. With an output of an estimated 5,400 prints, Ando Hiroshige was one of the most prolific artists of Ukiyo-e.

 

Contemporary Oxford Printmakers

Our stock of contemporary works by local artists has just been replenished! You can view these via our website or just pop into the shop and have a browse through the new additions.

Under the Ice
Josephine Sumner
Linocut
2011
Image 300 x 293 mm
Signed and inscribed in pencil.
Edition: 12/50

A Typical British Summer

Why not escape the typical British summer weather by taking shelter at Sanders of Oxford. Luckily the High Street isn't looking like this just yet...!

David Roberts Prints

Sanders are pleased to announce some striking  new additions to our collection of David Roberts lithographs.

Born in Scotland in 1796 David Roberts is especially known for a prolific series of detailed prints of Egypt and the Near East produced during the 1840s from sketches made during long tours of the region (1838-1840).

The lithographs were published in a six volume set, in which all 248 prints were hand colored. The first three volumes depicted Egypt and Nubia; the second three, the Holy Land. The set, which was sold by subscription, was an immediate success.

As a predecessor to photography lithographs such as these provided some of the most accurate depictions of foreign lands available to the masses at the time. These aspirational destinations depicted in such incredible atmospheric detail by Roberts would have been the first glimpses many westerners would have ever seen of the East.

Elected as a Royal Academician in 1841 his paintings are still the most beloved and popular illustrations of Egypt and are highly sought after by collectors.

Great Hall at Karnac. Thebes
David Roberts
Lithograph with later hand colouring
London Published by F. G. Moon, 20 Threadneedle St Aug1st 1846
Image 342 x 529 mm