Japan

Antique prints of Japan

Our antique prints of Japan are wood engravings from the French illustrated press of 1867 to 1879, when Japan had only just opened to the West: a tea house after Émile Bayard (1867), the main street of Yedo, today's Tokyo, by Charles Laplante (1879), a theatre scene and the interior of a Buddhist temple in Yedo. Several derive from the drawings of the Swiss envoy Aimé Humbert, whose account of Japan was widely read in Europe.

These prints show the first European view of Meiji Japan, before photography replaced the engraver.

All pieces are period originals unless stated otherwise, with a technical description and measurements.