L26403  ·  London, Cork Street

What a thing is,
and what it has been.

Six sales a year from one saleroom in Mayfair. Every lot examined under raking light before it is catalogued, and every attribution attributed to somebody by name.

Next sale 20 Oct 2026
Lots 21
Departments 6
Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)”
Katsushika Hokusai, Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)” Lot 52
01 Examination

Put the light down flat and the picture becomes an object.

A conservator examines a surface by dropping the lamp almost parallel to it, so every ridge of paint throws a shadow. Impasto, canvas weave, old fills and craquelure all appear. Drag across the plate to swing the lamp; lower it to graze the surface.

Under the Wave off Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as The Great Wave, from the series “Thirty-Six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei)” Drag to move the lamp
Lamp height
Relief

Surface normals are derived from this single photograph by shape-from-shading, as a reading aid. A measured relief map requires photometric stereo — several exposures under known light positions — which we supply with the full condition report.

03 Viewing room

Scale does not survive a thumbnail.

The trade still decides what a picture is worth by standing in front of it. This is the sale hung on real walls under real gallery lighting, at the works' own proportions. Drag to look around the room.

The three-dimensional viewing room needs a desktop browser with WebGL. Every lot can be examined individually from its catalogue entry.

Asian Art & Works on Paper Drag to look
06 Specialists

Anyone can photograph a picture. What a house is paid for is the research behind the entry.

On the founding of the house

Get Patina — Antique WordPress theme