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Lot Essay
Kozan was born in Kanazawa City, north of Kyoto. He studied metalwork under Tomiki Isuke (1853-1894), a blacksmith from Kanazawa who moved to Kyoto and began to specialize in articulated iron crabs and lobsters. In 1893, Kozan established his own business producing metalwork and other products for both the domestic and export markets. Kozan was well known for his articulated figures of insects. This is a very rare example of his model of a snake.
For similar work in the British Museum, see Harada Kazutoshi, ed., Jizai okimono Articulated Iron Figures of Animals, vol. 11 of Rokusho 11, special issue (Kyoto: Maria Shobo, Ltd., 2010), pl. 12.
Ripley was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur, amateur anthropologist and collector who created the famous Ripley's Believe It Or Not! newspaper panel series, radio show and television series featuring odd facts from around the world. He made his first trip around the world in 1922. In 1929, he drew the attention of the publisher William Randolph Hearst, who gave Believe It Or Not! its syndicated debut in seventeen newspapers wordwide. He traveled throughout Asia with financial assistance from Hearst. For several months after he first traveled to China, he signed his cartoons Rip Li. During these travels he picked up many strange souvenirs that later became an extensive collection of entertaining oddities. Flamboyantly eccentric, he kept a 28-foot boa constrictor as a pet. After a trip to Asia in 1932, he opened his first museum, the Odditorium, in Chicago. By the end of the decade, there were Odditoriums across the country. The one in New York City's Times Square is still going strong. He had a home in New York, where he died in 1949. His estate was sold at auction that same year.
For similar work in the British Museum, see Harada Kazutoshi, ed., Jizai okimono Articulated Iron Figures of Animals, vol. 11 of Rokusho 11, special issue (Kyoto: Maria Shobo, Ltd., 2010), pl. 12.
Ripley was an American cartoonist, entrepreneur, amateur anthropologist and collector who created the famous Ripley's Believe It Or Not! newspaper panel series, radio show and television series featuring odd facts from around the world. He made his first trip around the world in 1922. In 1929, he drew the attention of the publisher William Randolph Hearst, who gave Believe It Or Not! its syndicated debut in seventeen newspapers wordwide. He traveled throughout Asia with financial assistance from Hearst. For several months after he first traveled to China, he signed his cartoons Rip Li. During these travels he picked up many strange souvenirs that later became an extensive collection of entertaining oddities. Flamboyantly eccentric, he kept a 28-foot boa constrictor as a pet. After a trip to Asia in 1932, he opened his first museum, the Odditorium, in Chicago. By the end of the decade, there were Odditoriums across the country. The one in New York City's Times Square is still going strong. He had a home in New York, where he died in 1949. His estate was sold at auction that same year.