Composed of woodblocked sheets, sewn together and partly colored, with matching figures and texts. The group consists of 23 booklets, of which two in three copies and one in four copies; another couple has the same cover but different contents. The booklets can be considered as "manga" of the nineteenth century: the word "manga" still today can designate many different productions, such as single cartoons, scattered drawings, more elaborate illustrations, comic strips, comic books, as well as animated drawings. Therefore, starting from the assumption that there is no "manga form" but different ways of conceiving objects and graphic forms all denominated with this word, the term manga can be attested in literary and essayistic use in Japan as early as the eighteenth century to indicate, as mentioned above, drawings and sketches. But it is from the first half of the nineteenth century that Katsushika Hokusai's 15 volumes of illustrations, studies, graphic entertainment and detailed bichromatic prints became established, thanks to the progressive publication, starting from 1814. If, on the other hand, we want to give the word the more specific meaning of “stories drawn in sequence”, then the debut must be placed in the second half of the nineteenth century, similarly to what happened in Europe and the United States for comics. The booklets are in good condition.

The Joachim Quartet 1904

Etching. Signed lower right; additional signature and date on the top corner of the sheet music. This is a famous portrait taken by the Viennese photographer and engraver Ferdinand Schmutzer, of the musical quartet directed by maestro Joseph Joachim (1831 -1907), famous Hungarian violinist, composer and conductor. Among the famous portraits painted by Schmutzer are those of Albert Einstein, Sigmund Freud and Richard Strauss. The work is presented in a frame.

Hunting Scene

Watercolor etchings. Taken from a posthumous edition by Nicolas Bonnart (1636 -1718), as written at the bottom left, the four scenes are titled at the bottom in French, and depict a group of knights who try their hand at hunting different animals: l bear, deer, wild boar and birds. The central folds of the book are evident, there are humidity stains. They are presented in a stylish frame, in old-fashioned painted wood.

Sardines Fishing

Multiple bas-relief in silver. Signature engraved at the bottom. On the back, label of the "Alla Chiave" Gallery in Mestre, with the number of the specimen 140/200, and photo of the artist at work. Giuseppe Migneco, originally from Messina but who moved to Milan at a young age, was one of the major representatives, together with Aligi Sassu, Renato Birolli, Bruno Cassinari, Renato Guttuso, of the Corrente group open to the European artistic avant-garde. In favor of a painting of social commitment, he investigates reality with a critical, objective, historical eye. His characters with hard, square faces, marked by hard work and rendered with bright and strong tones, recall his Sicily with violent and clear features, but also the social realism of the Mexican muralists. In frame.

Print on paper. Rare anti-racist poster which, as indicated below, was published as a supplement to the magazine "MAI" of June '68, in the series "I manifesti di MAI di Giò" (Giorgio Tavaglione). It is a manifesto of the beat movements that spread in Italy in the years 1967-1968: thanks to the use of the mimeograph, which allowed the printing of numerous flyers, posters, poetic anthologies, small plaquettes and especially magazines, the young beatniks they created an alternative information channel that represented the primary vehicle for disseminating the principles that animated the beat movement, as opposed to the official cultural and communication circuits. Within the magazines, and in general in the various beat activities, poetic writing assumed an essential role as an integral part of the practice of dissent, since it represented one of the main forms of expression and affirmation of a different ideal of life, as well as of a different idea of collectivity. Giorgio Tavaglione was one of the best-known artistic exponents of the beat movement: as a complete self-taught Giò he designed the posters, flyers and covers of the first Italian underground magazines of the 1960s; disappeared for years after a trip to India, he subsequently reappeared as a draftsman of tarot cards and talismans in the creation of which he transferred his excellent graphic quality, his typical meticulous and imaginative, esoteric and visionary style. Work in frame.

Mixed technique on canvas. Signed lower right. The painting of Kodra, an Albanian painter trained artistically in Italy and active in the Milanese context, consists of a personal interpretation, of a fantastic kind, of Cubism, with the peculiarity that the decompositions typical of analytical cubism are proposed according to an approach of its own more than synthetic cubism. The seascape depicted here, with sailboats sailing close to a coast, is part of the later production, in which the native country is often evoked.

Etching. At the bottom left, within a cartouche, title and legend of the places with 14 numbered references; bottom right, the words "Amstelodami Exc. Ioannes Blaeu". This is the map of Racconigi, the city in the province of Cuneo, known for its castle, residence of the Savoy royal family. It is taken from the second edition of the "Theatrum Sabaudiae", the work created by Ioannes Blaeu in the first edition in 1682 for the Duchy of Savoy, as a political manifesto aimed at all the other European courts as testimony and exaltation of the greatness of the sovereign. The work is presented in a frame.

Chromolithography on paper, enriched by silver metal applications that define the halos of the Virgin and Child. The oval lithograph is also placed in a display case which is also exquisitely enriched with silver and gilded metal inserts, which define further frames with purely floral motif decorations. The representation presents the Madonna holding the rosary crown in her hand and the Baby Jesus in her arms, flanked on the sides by two saints of the Dominican order. The further frame with glass is made of wood with golden carvings.

Burin engravings on copper. Designed by Vincenzo Gazzotto and engraved by Antonio Bernati (1792-1873) in 1833, these are four engravings taken from the figurative repertoire "The costume of all nations and of all times, described and illustrated with an atlas" published by Lodovico Menin between 1833 and 1843. Each panel is numbered in the upper right corner, and bears in the upper center the indication of the geographical region and historical period of the costume scenes depicted. There are costumes: Lombardi sec. IX - X; Lombardi sec. XIV -XV; Tuscans sec. XIII-XIV; Marca Trevigiana sec. XIV. The engravings are presented in wooden frames from the mid-1900s, in an antique style.