Description:

Kaneko Kentarō SP Addressed to Alexander Hamilton's Grandson, the Famous Alienist Allan McLane Hamilton

A vintage photograph of Japanese lawyer and diplomatic envoy Kaneko Kentarō (1853-1942), signed, inscribed, and dated by him in English as, "To Dr. Allan McLane Hamilton, / With the regards of his friend, / Kentaro Kaneko. / New York, Sept. 26, 1905" along the mat at bottom. The sepia-colored photograph is pencil-inscribed "Pach / N.Y." at lower right, indicating the New York City photography firm of the Pach Brothers, established in 1867. This Pach Brothers' portrait of Kaneko Kentarō is remarkably similar to the celebrated photograph of him taken in Japan by Riyo Maruki. Kentarō is depicted in military uniform wearing a half-dozen Meiji-era medals. The photograph is displayed in a floating mount at the center of a mat, framed behind glass, and not examined out of the frame. Expected wear including a few ripples to the photograph surface, and scattered surface loss to the ebonized frame. An auction sticker from Weston's Auctions (Coventry, Connecticut) is found verso. The sight size of the photograph is 4" x 5.675" while the overall frame size is 9.75" x 12.75" x .5."

Kentarō dedicated this photograph to his friend Allan McLane Hamilton (1848-1919), the paternal grandson of Alexander Hamilton. Allan McLane Hamilton graduated from the medical school at Columbia University in 1870 with an interest in the nervous system; he later became one of the most revered alienists, or psychiatrists, of the turn-of-the-century. Allan McLane Hamilton provided expert testimony in the criminal insanity murder cases of Charles Guiteau, Leon Czolgosz, and Harry K. Thaw.

Kaneko Kentarō first traveled to the United States as part of the Iwakura Mission of the early 1870s, and graduated from Harvard University in 1878. During his time in America, Kentarō made many important friendships and gained an appreciation of American culture. Kentarō was instrumental in drafting the Meiji Constitution in Japan in the 1880s, a cadre of laws informed by Western legal doctrine. At the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War, Kentarō was dispatched as a special envoy to the United States to embark on a pro-Japanese public relations campaign. Kentarō met with 26th U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) at the White House on June 7, 1905, just a few months before dedicating this photograph, in order to discuss a mutually satisfactory resolution of the war. President Roosevelt agreed to arbitrate the dispute between Japan and Russia, resulting in the Treaty of Portsmouth, drafted during the summer of 1905.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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March 30, 2022 10:30 AM EDT
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