8th Century Sutra at Frieze Seoul Marks Peter Harrington's Oldest Ever Offering
Peter Harrington
Daihannyaharamittakyo (“Great Sutra of the Perfection of Wisdom”) Japan; Early Manuscript Culture (760)
Rare book dealer Peter Harrington will participate in Frieze Seoul for the first time this year, with an inaugural collection of 50 rare works that illustrate the artistic and aesthetic elements of manuscript and print culture, from its beginnings in East Asia through to the present day.
The selection includes works dating from the 8th century CE to the 20th century, demonstrating a history of continuity and contrast spanning almost 1,400 years.
“The unknown scribe who reverentially brushed the oldest item, a Buddhist manuscript from Japan’s golden age of sutra copying, is a strikingly different figure to Banksy, the creator of the most recent piece, the Kate Moss colourway," said Dr Matthew Wills who put together the selection. "Yet both show the power of works on paper to memorialize and celebrate cultural legacies, whether through brushing Buddhist teaching in fine calligraphy or screen-printing an homage to an iconic 20th century artist,” .
The selection includes the oldest item to be offered by Peter Harrington, an 8th century outstandingly well-preserved volume from an early Japanese manuscript on Mahayana Buddhism, as well as two early Buddhist sutras that reveal the role Korean monks played in the development, flourishing and transmission of Buddhist ideas across East Asia.
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Peter Harrington
A single paper leaf from the Gutenberg bible. This “Noble Fragment” originates from an imperfect copy of the Gutenberg Bible, lacking 50 leaves.
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Peter Harrington
Original autograph leaf from The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club by Charles Dickens (1837), with authorial deletions and insertions, one of only five such leaves remaining in private hands.
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Peter Harrington
Autograph manuscript notes on Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations by Napoleon (1791). An exceptional manuscript in Napoleon’s hand revealing his initial response to Smith’s Wealth of Nations. The manuscript is remarkable in establishing that Napoleon’s first reaction to Smith’s ideas was not disdain, as he would later affect, but admiration.
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Peter Harrington
Two original ink drawings from “Piglet Meets a Heffalump” by Ernest H. Shepard (illus.); A. A. Milne (1926)
Kaikoku heidan (The Military Defence of a Maritime Nation) by Hayashi Shihei, a revolutionary text that critiqued the Japanese shogunate’s isolationism
Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories and Tragedies, presented in its second folio edition (1632)
a first edition of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations with Napoleon’s manuscript notes, revealing an unguarded admiration for the famous economist
one of the precious few surviving leaves from Charles Dickens’s draft of the Pickwick Papers, with annotations in the author’s distinctive hand
The selection also includes several original illustrations including the delicate creations of Kay Nielsen’s for In Powder and Crinoline by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch in 1913.], and two ink illustrations by E. H. Shepard from chapter five of Winnie-the-Pooh (”In which Piglet meets a Heffalump”).
“We are delighted to be participating in Frieze Masters Seoul for the first time this year," said Ben Houston, Director of Sales at Peter Harrington. "We have exhibited at our home fair, Freize Masters London, for several years now, and have found it presents an unparalleled opportunity to connect with global collectors with very exacting tastes. We expect Frieze Seoul to be another exciting platform that will allow us to develop and deepen our connections to the discerning collector market in Asia,”
