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CURRENT OPENING HOURS :
Monday - Friday .....9am - 5pm
Saturday ..... 10am - 6pm
Sunday ..... CLOSED
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GREEK & ROMAN CLASSICS
'The Ides of March are come. Ay Caesar, but not gone.'
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene I.
March 15th, is the Ides of March, so if you're feeling a sense of dictatorial unease, why not amuse and distract yourself with our Classics list. Oxford is home to the largest Classics department in the world, so at Sanders we always have a collection of Greek and Roman rarities on display. The following list contains treasures old and new, from sixteenth century maps of the Ptolemaic old world to Erasmus Darwin's musings on mystery cults.
Click Here to View the Collection
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Current Landing Exhibition:
SHUNGA: Japanese Erotica 1770 – 1900
An exhibition and display of over 100 shunga prints and books from the collection of late British painter Peter Darach.
Exhibition: 27 February – 17 April 2025
Warning. 18 +
This collection contains prints depicting nudity and sexual acts. This material may not be appropriate for all viewers.
All prints and books are for sale.
Sanders of Oxford is pleased to present a selection of over 100 shunga prints and books from the collection of the late British painter Peter Darach (1940-2023) who amassed more than 300 prints, books, and original artworks spanning the period 1770-1900. Sanders of Oxford has sold printed erotica for more than half a century and has been dealing in Japanese woodblock prints for over forty years, even welcoming the Crown Prince of Japan Naruhito who viewed our Ukiyo-e prints in the shop when he was a student at Merton College. This collection meant a great deal to Peter and like many artists that preceded him, such as Toulouse-Lautrec, Rodin, Beardsley, Singer Sargent, and Picasso, Peter Darach looked at and collected this material for his own enjoyment as well as inspiration for his painting and drawing. We are proud to have the chance to work with this material and present it in the context of changing attitudes towards shunga and the body of research of the last 25 years.
Shunga is the term used for the body of erotic imagery produced in Japan from 1600 to 1900. The term shunga means spring pictures and is a euphemism for sex and is one of several names for erotic material produced in Japan. Shunga took different formats: painted hand scrolls, painted books, printed books and albums and sets of prints which were sometimes sold in wrappers. As prints they are one of the genres of Ukiyo-e, or Floating World, prints which includes: fukeiga (landscape prints), and bijin-ga (prints of beautiful women). Whilst shunga production flourished in the Edo Period (1600-1868) it had an illegal but tolerated status after the 1722 Kyoho reforms. Edicts continued to be reinvoked throughout the Edo period but shunga continued to be produced in large numbers. Most of the major Ukiyo-e artists produced shunga material at some point during their career including Utamaro (who produced more erotic books than non-erotic books), Hokusai, and Hiroshige. Produced at the same time as the introduction of full colour woodblock printing, shunga prints and books were made using the most lavish and complicated printing techniques including gauffrage, metallic inks, mica, complicated printed patterns, and multicolour printing using a high number of different colours. Shunga whilst prolific is more representative of the idea of the Ukiyo-e or Floating World with an emphasis on mutual pleasure rather than an accurate representation of Japanese attitudes and practices of sexuality. Shunga prints present an invitation to pleasure through the bliss of lovemaking and though largely heteronormative, they portray the gamut of couplings married or otherwise, often surrounded by lavish settings and objects of pleasure.
Click Here to View the Exhibition Catalogue
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Current Gallery Exhibition:
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