Page 8 - Bonhams Katchen Collection of Netsukes

JULIUS AND ARLETTE KATCHEN
VIRTUOSO COLLECTORS

Born in 1926 in Long Branch, New Jersey, Julius Katchen was one of the finest pianists of the
twentieth century. The son of a lawyer and a former concert pianist, he studied music with his
grandparents, Russian immigrants who had taught at the Moscow and Warsaw conservatoires.
Julius was a child prodigy: in addition to the outstanding musical ability he displayed from an
early age, he became an expert swimmer and table-tennis player and later completed a four-year
philosophy course in three years.

Julius and his wife Arlette shared two great interests: music and netsuke. It was on a concert tour
of Japan in 1953 that they first came across netsuke, making a purchase in Kyoto (lot 123, The
Julius and Arlette Katchen Collection of Fine Netsuke: Part I, 8 November 2016). From then on they
tried—whenever possible and wherever they were—to visit dealers and auction rooms in between
performances at most of the world’s greatest concert halls. In spite of the lack of literature on the
subject in those early collecting days, they studied assiduously, rapidly learning from the writings of
Henri Joly and Frederick Meinertzhagen about the intricacies of the art, the makers, and the subjects
of netsuke. In London, they befriended the dealer Geoffrey Moss, through whom they purchased
netsuke until the untimely death of Julius at the age of 42, in April 1969.

Although the more public persona of Julius Katchen placed him in the limelight, when it came to
selecting and purchasing netsuke for the collection he and Arlette worked as a team. They were
constant visitors to London and attended all but the last of the sales of the M. T. Hindson collection
at Sotheby’s from 1967 to 1969, although regrettably Julius died two months before the final sale
he had desperately wanted to attend. Following the early death of Julius, Arlette’s interest continued
and she continued quietly adding to the collection, filling in the gaps.

It may be too much of a generalisation to state that Julius Katchen preferred large, dynamic netsuke
of the eighteenth century while Arlette was more attracted to smaller, neater, and later examples.
Their tastes certainly coincided in their joint admiration for netsuke produced by the great Kyoto
masters from the late eighteenth to the early nineteenth century and for the later works of Kaigyokusai
of Osaka. It will be noted, however, in this and the past two catalogues that the collection is varied
and encompasses a wide variety of styles, materials, and makers.

On a personal note, I had the great pleasure of visiting the Katchens in Paris on numerous occasions
in the 1960s. They were perfect hosts and, due to our shared interest in the subject, we would spend
many hours, sometimes into the early morning, discussing the peculiarities of netsuke makers: the
signatures, the shapes of eyes, the incised hair work, or the carving of paws in, for instance, the
netsuke masters of Kyoto or Tomokazu of Gifu and his school. It was on one of these trips that I
arrived a little early and was shown into a small study in their apartment, where I spent time with
Arlette, talking about and enjoying the collection while listening to Julius practising on one of his two
concert-grand pianos in the salon next door, a rare treat which I shall never forget.

While a number of netsuke have been disposed of over the years, Bonhams are proud to
have been given the opportunity to have offered for sale, in three parts, the remainder of this
remarkable collection.

Neil Davey