Turner Auctions + Appraisals is pleased to present The Estate of Edward S. Stephenson on Saturday, March 9, 2024. Featuring over 200 lots, the sale features a diverse and eclectic collection featuring two major themes: arms and armor, and Asian decorative arts, primarily from Japan. The latter are mostly from Mr. Stephenson’s time in Japan with the military at the end of World War II, before he became an award-winning Hollywood production designer. Highlights include a Franz Von Stuck nautilus cup and the coronation costume of Baron Sawada at Emperor Hirohito's coronation in Kyoto in 1928.
The part of the auction that features arms & armor includes a diverse range of items, mostly from England, continental Europe, and Japan: sets of armor, hall shields, chargers, medallions, military portrait plaques, helmets, tsuba, and more. Armaments from various countries and centuries include several swords and bayonets; a saber, cutlass, and dagger; plus a selection of Japanese tantō.
From Japan are an eclectic array of decorative arts, small furniture, works of art, household items, and more: netsuke, statues, ewers, bowls, vases, jars, Satsuma and Imari ware, hibachi, blue and white porcelain, miniature zushi, Bunraku puppet heads, early 20th-century kimonos, boxes, carved figures, a 19th-century tama sculpture, gongs, a scroll painting, groups of wooden boxes, and much more. Among the lacquerware items are picnic and other boxes, sets, games, a pear box, and miniatures. Noh items include an assortment of masks and a doll set in a fitted chest. Among the small furniture items are tansu chests, armor chests, and collectors cabinets. Works on paper include calligraphy documents, woodblock books, and temple stamp books.
From China are censers, ceramic figures, famille verte dishes, a brush pot, vases, covered jars, a marble head of Guanyin, a jade figure of fu dogs, and a bronze figure of Manjusri. From elsewhere in Asia are ceramics, textiles, mystical silk batik panels, and a collection of seals. Rounding out the sale are bronze figures and sculptures, candlesticks, platters, a 19th-century goblet, Orlando Furioso from 1967 in three volumes, and more.
About Edward S. Stephenson and His Collection
Born in Iowa, Edward S. Stephenson (1917-2011) moved with his family around age six to Glendale, in Southern California. Inspired by early motion pictures, young Edward decided at age 11 he wanted to pursue theater and production design. After high school, he attended the Pasadena Playhouse College of the Theater and after graduation began working in theatrical design.
Like many other young men, his career was interrupted by World War II. Serving in the U.S. Air Force, he was stationed in Guam, Texas, and, for seven years, in Japan. He was appointed civilian Director of Entertainment and Music for the Commander in Chief, Far East and Supreme Commander, Allied Powers; in this role, he headed the military’s post-occupation entertainment services, when entertainment for GIs was said to be a “necessary supplement to the basic needs of food and shelter.” Much of his time was spent at the Tokyo Takarazuka Revue building, later renamed the Ernie Pyle Theater for the Pulitzer Prize-winning author who was killed in Okinawa. Known as the “Radio City Music Hall of the East,” this was the hub for American-style entertainment in Japan and indeed all of Asia. It was here that Mr. Stephenson plied his trade of production and theater design, including a performance of “The Mikado” that was attended by the Japanese royal family.
After the service, Mr. Stephenson spent a short time in New York, then returned to Southern California in the early 1950s. From his time in Japan, he sent the second largest shipment of Japanese artifacts back to the U.S.; the largest was sent to Gump’s, the renowned retailer in San Francisco.
Upon his return to Los Angeles, Mr. Stephenson began working in production design in live television, a career that spanned five decades and numerous accolades. He received three Primetime Emmy Awards for production design and/or art direction -- for An Evening with Fred Astaire, for The Andy Williams Show, and for Soap. With Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin, he worked on numerous shows, including Maude, Sanford & Son, Good Times, and the pilot for All in the Family. He also worked with Witt-Thomas-Harris on Golden Girls, Empty Nest, Blossom, and others.
In 1978, he found time to launch Hollywood Studio Gallery, which became the entertainment industry’s leading prop house for art and wall décor, with 50,000 pieces available for rent. Today the company is owned and run by Mr. Stephenson’s daughter, Tara Stephenson-Fong, herself a noted set decorator and winner of an Art Directors Guild (ADG) award, along with numerous Emmy and ADG nominations. Mr. Stephenson retired in 1994.
While collecting his entire adult life, Mr. Stephenson seems to have been first bitten by the bug when he was in Japan after the war; trading, for example, a carton of cigarettes for a samurai sword. While in Japan, he collected numerous Japanese woodblock prints: Turner Auctions + Appraisals’ followers will remember the very successful sale in May 2023 of his collection of woodblock prints from post-war Japan that featured ghosts, demons, and monsters, whose myths and legends pervade Japanese culture. Other woodblock prints from Mr. Stephenson’s collection will be available in a future auction. This sale offers an extensive array of many other Asian decorative arts he acquired over time, as well as his collection of European military armor and other arms.
According to Tara, her father loved art and architecture: “He saw something beautiful and wanted to have it – and he didn’t know how to do anything small.” Now, over the years, Mr. Stephenson’s collections have been sorted out, awaiting the right time and the right person to go to sale. As with the supernatural prints offered previously, Tara says she hopes these objects, carefully acquired with a designer’s eye, “find a good home with good people.”
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