New-York tribune., 1908-03-17
TWO SALES.
The Collections of Yemanaka & Co. and Ben
jamin Benguiat.

An art collection emanating from business
house is hardly expected TO possess the character
of one slowly brought together over long period
years by private connoisseur. but both
the sales, commercial in origin. which are sched-
ued take place this week will dispose or really
remarkable bodies of artistic things. At the
American Galleries the Orientala to be sold
there for Yamanaka & Co Thursday, Friday
and Saturday afternoons, makes of the most
interesting exhibitions of the kind which we have
had in a long time At the Fifth Avenue Art Gel
eries the Benjamin Benguiat collection OF tex
tiles, also be dispersed Thursday, Friday
and Saturday afternoons. is in its way unique
If a dealers stock" put UP at auction, does not
always appeal to the amateur it is because 1t VIII
include objects originally assembled for the
general market There two departments in
the Yamanaka collection which have compare
lively little the fastidous taste. The
jades and ivories well enough, so far as they
go, but in neither case are the objects shown es-
pecially distinguished. In other respects. how
ever, this of material is unusually rich
The closonne enamels include some superb pieces
and the porcelains make beautiful array. The
single color most obviously to the fore,
but they not by any means the sole prizes in
the collection There is group Of Han jars
numbered from 513 to b1s) which by itself forms
a little island Of beauty. The miscellaneous side
of the collection, though not exactly dtmmeds Is
abundantly balanced by the great company of an
tique Chinese rugs occupying the upper galleries
There hundred of these rarftieS or the
Eastern loom and 1t is no exaggeration to
that there is not one in the lot that is dull They
throw suggestive light Chinese art Stu
dents .of Oriental painting prints, decorated pors
celan, bronze and on well know the quaint
and even bizarre conception of form which so ire
quently obtains among the makers of these
things. The old Chinese rug rarely exhibits the
same audacity Of design The patterns are SIM
pie in the extreme, with classical ornament, or.
at most delicately conventionalized floral sub
iect satisfying the weavers taste. In color, too.
they are goriously rich and harmonious
TO a point of academic perfection. The 4amanaka
specimens. every key, in many sizes, and all In
a phenomenal state of preservation. constitute,
when taken together. a veritable monument to an
historic art industry.
Mr. Benguiats treasures turn the Fifth Avenue
Art Galleries into species of museum There are
textiles among them indeed, which might well be
pun chased for the Metropolitan One may get here
some idea of the development of tapestry, from the
naTvete of the early Burgundian looms to the so
phstication pictorial extravagances OF the late
Renaissance. North and South Especially would
we welcome in Museum piece like the Gothic
Tapestry with Animals (No. 34S), a magnlhcent
souvenir of a momentous period American tas'e
in these matters always under the influence OF late
French examples. to which the dealers long gave
the preference needs to be drawn more and more
I'm the direction of Just such work is Illustrated
in this bit of Gothic arras. The design embooies
picture" hut only in the most artess lashloh.
Some garden palings. forming an inclosure IN
sylvan place provide, nominally a centre, ana the
n,,nale introduced are distributed here and there
with some sense of balance. But the main thlnG
is Just the creation of rich surface oecolauoi
for the wall that is TO serve as backsrouho' not
&c n substitute for a painting. The Benguat col
lection contains noble series of tapestries from
MANY epochs and these make the backbone OF the
sale but of equal artistic value In their way are
the embroidered vestments. sometimes heaVy WIN
o,5 the naneIs of old velvet the Renaissance
vestments and banners and the fragments OF iace'
There are three hundred and sixty five pieces In ALL
and here, too, have 10 reckon with d quaHti'y
Of work that never falls beneath a certain hSh
standard The season has not brought forward two
more important sales than these.