Japanese Decorative Arts & Prints
Maidstone Museum and Bentlif Art Gallery’s collections of the Japanese Edo period (1600-1868) are amongst the best in the South East. They contain over 3,000 artefacts, primarily from two locally connected donations in the early 20th Century.
Walter Samuel (1882-1948), the eldest son of Marcus Samuel, Lord Bearsted of Mote House, Maidstone and founder of Shell, amassed from 1905-1923 around 390 sword fittings such as tsuba (sword guards), 250 inro (portable medicine boxes), netsuke (toggles for inro) and 150 lacquer containers and furniture, and bronzes. The jewel of Samuel’s collection is undoubtebly 620 Ukiyoe woodblock prints by famous Edo period woodblock print masters. These include Hokusai's ‘Great Wave off Kanagawa’ and ‘Red Fuji' and a complete set of Hiroshige's Hoeido Tokaido Way series. We also have over 80 related woodblock printed books. The Samuel Collection was presented through The National Art Fund in 1923.
Henry Marsham (1845-1908), the son of the third Earl of Romney, was a retired army officer turned businessman, who lived in Weavering House, Maidstone. He settled in Japan in 1905, sending a uniquely wide-ranging collection of everyday Japanese pottery and tea ceremony ware, together with some fine Japanese non-export porcelain, back on loan to Maidstone Museum. Marsham’s collection of around 700 ceramics was bequeathed to the Museum in 1908.
The Japanese Collections are supported by a comprehensive library, documentation and photographs made by the collectors.
