Geisha Fans Highlight A Different Era In Japan

BOOK REVIEW

The Geisha Fan Book, by Tina Skinner, will make a great gift for anyone who collects fans. The photographs of the girls and young women, geisha apprentices, who are portrayed in the book are one hundred years old.

These women are not like the geisha found in Japan today. They inhabited the Pleasure Districts, walled entertainment areas where entertainers and prostitutes served the growing middle class. Girls might have been stolen from their families or sold by them and if they showed a potential for beauty might be trained in the arts of a geisha.

This training required them to learn dancing, music, conversational skills, gaming skills, the writing of poetry and the ability to entertain men! If a girl was successful in her training, she might acquire a wealthy patron. Even if she was successful, a girl’s life as a geisha would probably end by the time she was in her mid- to late twenties. At that time, if she had been lucky, she would have been able to ensure financial stability for the rest of her life.

The images in this book have come from antique postcards. Japan, which had been closed to the rest of the world, opened to foreign trade in 1853, and photographers were quick to record all the aspects of the country, including the exotic, beautiful women, and many of the pictures were made into postcards. They were circulated throughout the rest of the world, from Russia to the United States.

The photographs have been “cleaned up” electronically to make them sharper, and their backgrounds removed. Most of them are accompanied by a haiku verse. The book itself is fan-shaped – it’s very eye-catching, and made for display.

The Geisha Fan Book (ISBN: 978-0-7643-2746-9) is published by Schiffer Publishing. It is priced at $24.95.

An additional book on the life of the geisha is Geisha, Women of Japan’s Flower & Willow World, (Schiffer Publishing, 2005,) by Tina Skinner and Mary L. Martin.

This book contains a comprehensive historical text about the life of the geisha, from the lowly tea server to the high-class prostitute. Over 500 photographs, again taken from postcards, are used to illustrate this “Flower and Willow World.”

Geisha (ISBN: 0-7643-2153-6) is priced at $49.95.

Schiffer books are available online at www.schifferbook.com.

Donna Miller

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Son Revises 50-Year-Old Edition Of
'Early American Furniture'

BOOK REVIEW

Fine Points of Early American Furniture, by Albert Sack, is available in a revised edition from Schiffer Publishing. Using over 700 photographs, it presents a thorough analysis of the various elements of design, decoration, craftsmanship, construction and finish of the furniture made in America during the country’s early years.

The book uses a good, better and best format, which gives the relative merits of a particular style of each kind of furniture.

Three Chippendale mahogany ladder-back side chairs are one example. All three were made during the same period of time, between 1770 and 1780. However, they vary widely in quality and, therefore, value. The “good” chair is said to be narrow and skimpy, and the pierced slats of the back are not as well done. The “better” chair has well-made horizontal slats and a more balanced proportion. The “best” chair has carved centers in the slats and molded edges, as well as a curved seat which adds both to the over all design and comfort. This is the type of discussion that is used throughout the book, to help a collector or dealer distinguish the “fine points” of the title.

A mistaken notion we often have of the furniture of the colonial period and into the 1800s is that it was hand-made cottage furniture, and apt to be crude. However, from the first settlements of our country, there have been wealthy people, and they required the best in craftsmanship for the furnishings of their homes. (This was the best way they had to show off their wealth.) Fortunately, much of their furniture survives. This is less surprising when one realizes that the finest woods were used, and the skillful workmanship that was employed in making the furniture, tended to ensure that this furniture would be cared for and passed down through families through many generations. In short, pieces were built to last.

The book is divided by category – chairs, tables, beds, etc. A final section discusses restorations, replacements and imperfections, and what the author considers essential as to the basic parts of a piece of furniture which must be intact for a piece to be considered as premium by collectors.

For example, the basic parts of a bed which must be present are the two head posts, the two foot posts, the two long rails, the two short rails and the headboard. The main things which are apt to be missing or to have been replaced are the long rails, the short rails and the original headboard. One should also check the posts, since many have been re-turned or re-curved.

This book was first written in 1950 by the author’s father, Isaac Sack. It includes the Foreword which he wrote at that time, and it is just as interesting and appropriate today as it was when it was written over 50 years ago.

Fine Points of Early American Furniture (ISBN: 978-0-7643-2737-7) is priced at $29.95. It does not include a price guide. Check with your local bookseller, or contact Schiffer Publishing at (610) 593-1777; or online at www.schifferbooks.com.

Donna Miller

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