One of the things I love about buying old books is the possibility that someone might have left a little something extra inside them for you... a bus ticket, a newspaper cutting, or some other little gem. I bought a second set of the original Henri Vever collection sale catalogues that were compiled by Jack Hillier, complete with their green dust jackets, a little while back and this incomplete cutting, dating from 27th March, 1974, was stuck inside the third volume:

Extraordinary prices paid for Japanese prints
By Geraldine Norman
Sale Room Correspondent

"The third and final sale at Sotheby's devoted to the famous Henri Vever collection of Japanese prints produced extraordinary prices yesterday. The sale, which had been expected to make £136,235 totalled £330,680; the collection, sold in three parts, has realised £1,838,695.

Two separate Japanese dealers had chartered aircraft to bring collectors to the sale, one from Tokyo and one from Kyoto. Much of the Japanese national collection was acquired from Vever in the 1920s; his name thus stands high in Japan. Vever himself was a French jeweller, artist and collector of various items. He died in 1943.
Yesterday's sale essentially contained the left-overs of the collection, some fine prints but mostly in indifferent condition. A Harunobu print of a girl parachuting into the branches of a flowering cherry made the top price at £8,600 (estimate £400 to £500). Only one other impression of the print is recorded. She is apparently testing whether Buddha wishes her to marry; if she reaches the ground alive, he approves."

The print referred to (illustrated above) is an egoyomi, or calendar print, issued for 1765. The Japanese year was divided up into twelve long and short months, with the particular months designated as long or short ones changing each and every year, without any logical pattern. Egoyomi served as a way of letting the general public know which months would be long and which would be short, with the information often concealed within intricate designs. In this case, the long months are printed within the seashells on the young woman's kimono, and are 2, 3, 5, 6, 8 and 10.