Some Japanese Flowers

Kazumasa Ogawa
1895, 10 Chromo-Collotype Plates

Ogawa Kazumasa:
Some Japanese Flowers, Chromo-Collotype by K. Ogawa, F.R.P.S., Tokio, small folio (11 3/4 x 15 1/2 in - 30 x 39 cm), Tokyo, K. Ogawa, Meiji 28 (1895), and Yokohama, Kelly & Walsh, 1897, decorated creped type paper over cardboard wraps, pasted on title label on front cover, cord tied, title page, list of plates, 10 "Chromo-Collotype" color plates of flowers, plates preceded by captioned tissue interleaves with the Latin and Japanese names for the flowers. A Japanese colophon is inserted before the back end paper. It is dated Meiji 28 (1895)and only lists K. Ogawa. The title page bears the Kelly & Walsh imprint and the date 1897.

This book is the earliest book of flower collotypes by K. Ogawa of which I am aware. It was actually published in 1895. In Japan Described and Illustrated, published in 1897-8, K. Ogawa flower collotypes served as the frontispiece in each volume/section. Five of the collotypes in this book were also found in that set. More information on these is below.

The title page describes the plates as "Chromo-Collotypes." This a very precise term for the nature of Ogawa's work and one not normally found on the title pages of Ogawa books. More information on the "chromo-collotype" process (as called the multi-pass process) that Ogawa was using is found here.

For information on Kazumasa Ogawa, click here.

List of Collotype Plates (a page from the book).

Title Page:

Contents:

Plate  I.    Lilium speciosum, varieties   (Kanoko-yuri)
Plate  II.   Iris Iaevigatam var. Kaempferi  (Hana-shobu)
Plate  III.  Paeonia arborea  (Botan)
Plate  IV.   Wistaria sinensis   (Fuji)
Plate  V.    Nelumbium speciosum  (Hasu)
Plate  VI.   Rhododendron indicum  (Tsutsuji)
Plate  VII.  Camellia japonica, double striped  (Tsubaki)
Plate  VIII  Iris Iaevigata var. Kaempferi  (Hana-shobu)
Plate  IX.    Lilium auratum  (Beni-suji)
Plate  X.    Ipomaea hederacea  (Asagao)

Plates: