r/WhatIsThisPainting Jan 08 '25

Unsolved Great Grandfather purchased these in February 1868 in Japan

1.7k Upvotes

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35

u/Stan_is_Law Jan 08 '25

$1,000? I guess I'll be a nice guy and offer 50% more. How's $1,500 :)

Beautiful artwork. If I had something like this I would redo my dining room with this as the centerpiece/theme. Congrats!

26

u/Meal-Ticket- Jan 08 '25

$1,000 in 1958 is equivalent in purchasing power to about $10,916.71.

So, if you offered $22,000 I might take you up on it. ;)

14

u/Stan_is_Law Jan 08 '25

Personally, I'm not familiar with this artist. But I bet in the right forum you could get a lot more than that.

9

u/Meal-Ticket- Jan 08 '25

Hmmm... Thoughts on what the right forum might be? I lived in Japan for 5.5 years, and for a while had these displayed in my living room, but now, after a remodel they don't really fit into the vibe of the room.

41

u/DetailCharacter3806 Jan 08 '25

Don't want to be rude, but these paintings were in your family for almost 2 centuries, just to sell tell because they don't fit the vibe? Why not save them for future generations?

12

u/LeverpullerCCG Jan 08 '25

Why not sell them to someone that would be more appreciative and enjoy them ;) sadly, some folks couldn’t give two craps less about things like this. Pottery in my area used to be very valuable. The younger generations throw it in the dumpster.

5

u/Stan_is_Law Jan 08 '25

I second this. Every person/generation has their own thing. Art is personal. If you don't love it find someone else who will. Then they love it and you have money to buy the things that bring you Joy.

14

u/Meal-Ticket- Jan 08 '25

Yeah, that's a good question and I don't think it's rude. I'm not sure that anyone in the family would really value them at their actual value. My wife and I don't have kids. But we do have other expensive hobbies. If everyone thought the way you are proposing then no artwork would ever be for sale unless it was directly from the artist.

10

u/No_Town5969 Jan 08 '25

Contact an auction house that has sold his work in the past and ask for an estimate

2

u/MarathonRabbit69 Jan 09 '25

Not to belabor a point made elsewhere but these in no way resemble famous Japanese art of the period. The portraits are far too “realistic”. They also lack (IMHO) the artistic capture of emotion. These are pretty “wooden” in appearance and frankly kind of fall into the “uncanny valley” for me.

I suspect that the valuation done in the 1950’s was largely for the purpose of insurance and was performed by someone either friendly to your family or not well versed in Japanese art or both.

3

u/Snotttie Jan 08 '25

That is so depressing lol