Hot Spring at Shirahone - Shiro Kasamatsu
by Zia ~ July 20th, 2006. Filed under: Art.Last November, I ordered a Heisei edition of this print for a birthday present to myself– and then cancelled the order because I bought the new car. I’ve coveted this print ever since.
Last week, I found what I was pretty sure was an older edition on eBay, and managed to snag it. It came in the mail today, and I took it apart. The watanabe seal in the lower lefthand corner dates it to between 1946-57 (the print was originally published in 1935), and unfortunately, someone taped the edges down to the non-acid free matting. It’s also very, very faded.
I don’t know whether it’s worth having a conservator work some magic on it, but fortunately Floating World does free appraisals. I’m having fantasies about it being worth thousands of dollars, but I know that’s extremely unlikely. Still, a girl can dream …
***Update: It’s not worth having any conservation work done on it. The frame it came in was actually quite nice, so I’m having it reframed with the same materials, but adding some conservation matting on the inside and the back.