Dec 13, 2018 - Sale 2496

Sale 2496 - Lot 111

Price Realized: $ 3,250
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,800 - $ 2,200
(JAPAN -- PERRY.) Gashu Koku Shokan Wakai. Political manuscript map of Japan showing Commodore Perry's Black Ship at the entrance of Edo Bay. Ink and watercolor on mulberry paper; 11x15 inches, folded, light tide marks. Japan, circa 1853

Additional Details

together with: A 50-page manuscript titled Gashu Koku Shokan Wakai, translating into Japanese official letters and documents directed to the Japanese Emperor from President Millard Fillmore, Secretary of State Edward Everett and Commodore Matthew Perry. 8vo format, 9 1/2x6 3/4 inches, stitch bound, minor worming; circa 1853.

In his letter to the Emperor, Fillmore implores for harmonious commerce: "I have directed Commodore Perry to assure your imperial majesty that I entertain the kindest feelings toward your majesty's person and government, and that I have no other object in sending him to Japan but to propose to your imperial majesty that the United States and Japan should live in friendship and have commercial intercourse with each other."

Together, the map and letters represent an important archive of contemporary events relating to the opening of trade relations between Japan and the United States.