The Seven-Century-Old Shop-Worn Buddhas
A Seattle jeweler’s lawsuit over antique statues reveals a strange, centuries-spanning trail from a Japanese temple to a King County courtroom.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The superior court of King County probably never before had a case on trial in which one of the pieces of personal property in dispute was 700 years old, but that is what it has now. The articles, after seven centuries of existence, are two Buddha gods formerly belonging to the stock of W. C. Reichenecker, a jeweler who failed about a year ago. Mr. Reichenecker did not appear to have appreciated the value of the Buddha gods he had for sale, for he wrote to the Japanese importer, Ichi Ban, in San Francisco, complaining of the gods being old. He received a reply that provided no little amusement to the judges and attorneys. The letter read: 'To speak of the Buddhas as being old and shop-worn: that is exactly what gives them their value—as pieces of work made perhaps more than 700 years ago. None have been made in the last fifty years; these were handed down from age to age in some old Buddhist temple through ten generations of priests. They are as perfect as any that might be found. They were made by divine command before the present dynasty came into power in Japan, some 310 years ago... If the two pieces you have now were in Yokohama they would doubtless bring twice what we charged you for them, as we bought them several years ago, having completely gutted two or three temples.' Judge Lichtenberg expressed a desire to acquire one of the statues to display in the courtroom between the two windows.
“To speak of the Buddhas as being old and shop-worn: that is exactly what gives them their value—as pieces of work made perhaps more than 700 years ago.”
While legal squabbles over inventory are common, this case highlights a 19th-century struggle between local commerce and the global art trade. Today, the debate over the provenance of antiquities continues to haunt museums and auction houses worldwide, proving that the 'shop-worn' history of objects remains as contentious now as it was in 1892.
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