Finding aid for the Mathias Komor photographic archive, 1935-1978

Jan Bender and Ann Harrison

Descriptive Summary

Title: Mathias Komor photographic archive

Date (inclusive): 1935-1978

Number: 89.P.5

Creator/Collector: Komor, Mathias, 1909-1984

Physical Description: 10.2 Linear Feet (23 boxes)

Repository:

The Getty Research Institute

Special Collections

1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100

Los Angeles 90049-1688

reference@getty.edu

URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref

(310) 440-7390

Abstract: Assembled by Mathias Komor, an art dealer in New York City from the 1930s until his death in 1984, the collection documents objects that passed through one of the first New York dealers to handle ancient and ethnographic art.

Request Materials: Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy .

Language: Collection material is in English .

Biographical/Historical Note

In 1974, the J. Paul Getty Museum began assembling a "photo library" by consolidating the visual resources of each existing curatorial department. By the early 1980s, the Photo Archive was actively acquiring large collections of photographs from commercial and private sources and scholars' archives that contained a photographic component. In 1983, the nearly one million photographs of the Photo Archive were incorporated into the Research Institute's Special Collections.

Administrative Information

Access

Open for use by qualified researchers. For further information, consult the Guide to the Photo Archive and Database .

Publication Rights

Photographs and permission to publish must be obtained from copyright holder(s). For further information, contact Library Reproductions and Permissions .

Preferred Citation

Mathias Komor photographic archive, circa 1940-1984, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 89.P.5.

http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa89p5

Processing History

Jan Bender created the collection inventory in 2012 and Ann Harrison completed the finding aid.

Scope and Content of Collection

Assembled by Mathias Komor, an art dealer in New York City from the 1930s until his death in 1984, the collection documents objects that passed through one of the first New York dealers to handle ancient and ethnographic art. Much of this material is now in public and private collections in the United States. The Komor archive is comprised of photographs of objects and some miscellaneous archival and ephemeral material. These are the only surviving records of the Komor Gallery and do not include business records.

The bulk of the archive, Series I, is comprised of photographs of Classical, Near Eastern, and Egyptian antiquities; ethnographic objects from Africa, Meso-America, and Oceania; Japanese, Chinese, Indian, and Southeast Asian art; European sculpture, decorative arts, and drawings. Photographers include Richard Averill Smith, G.D. Hackett, Peter A. Juley & Son, Raymond Fortt Studios, and R.H. Hildyard. Most photographs document objects that went through the Komor Gallery, while others were added for study or comparative purposes. Many of the photographs are not annotated.

In addition to the photographs, the collection also includes a small quantity of other material forming Series II. Included here are scholarly correspondence; 17 drawings of various subjects; 54 rubbings; two architectural plans of Komor's New York gallery; several manuscript versions and galleys of the printed text of Komor's 1951 exhibition catalog, Imperial porcelains of the Ming dynasty, 1368-1644 A.D.; a manuscript on Chinese ceramics; a manuscript by Alan Priest on a Chinese landscape scroll; and clippings.

Arrangement

Arranged in two series: Series I. Photographs, 1972, undated; Series II. Miscellaneous papers, 1935-1978, undated.

Indexing Terms

Subjects - Names

Komor, Mathias, 1909-1984 -- Photograph collections

Subjects - Topics

Art, Indic

Art, African

Art -- Oceania

Art, Southeast Asian

Sculpture, European

Drawing, European

Classical antiquities

Art, Japanese

Art, Chinese

Indian art -- Mexico

Decorative arts -- Europe

Indian art -- Central America

Subjects - Places

Middle East -- Antiquities

Egypt -- Antiquities

Subjects - Titles

Imperial porcelains of the Ming Dynasty

Genres and Forms of Material

Negatives

Slides (photographs)

Transparencies

Black-and-white prints (photographs)

Rubbings

Contributors

Peter A. Juley & Son

Hildyard, R.H.

Komor, Mathias, 1909-1984

Raymond Fortt Studios

Hackett, G.D.

Smith, Richard Averill

Series I. Photographs, 1972, undated

Physical Description: 9.8 Linear Feet (22 boxes)

Arrangement

Arranged by region and period. Classical, Near Eastern, and Egyptian materials further arranged typologically.

box 1-3, 20

Chinese, undated

box 1, folder 1

Pre-historic, undated

box 1, folder 2-3

Shang, undated

box 1, folder 4-12

Shang-Zhou, undated

box 1, folder 13-15

Zhou, undated

box 2, folder 1

Qin, undated

box 2, folder 2

Han, undated

box 2, folder 3

Three Kingdoms, undated

box 2, folder 4

Northern Wei, undated

box 2, folder 5

Northern Qin, undated

box 2, folder 6-11

T'ang, undated

box 2, folder 12

Song, undated

box 2, folder 13

Yuan, undated

box 2, folder 14-15

Ming, undated

box 2, 20

Ming-Qing, undated

box 2, folder 18

Qing, undated

box 3

Unidentified eras, undated

box 3, folder 1-4

Ceramics, undated

box 3, folder 5

Furniture, undated

box 3, folder 6

Jade, undated

box 3, folder 7

Decorative arts, undated

box 3, folder 8-9

Pottery, undated

box 3, folder 10

Rugs, undated

box 3, folder 11-15

Sculpture, undated

box 3, folder 16

Vases and vessels, undated

box 20

Color polaroids and transparencies, undated

box 3, folder 17

Chinese/Japanese, pottery in archaic styles, undated

box 4-6

Japanese, undated

box 4, folder 1

Jomon, undated

box 4, folder 2

Yayoi, undated

box 4, folder 3-6

Kofun, undated

box 4, folder 7

Nara, undated

box 4, folder 8-9

Heian, undated

box 4, folder 10

Kamakura, undated

box 5, folder 1

Ashikagi-Muromachi, undated

box 5, folder 2

Momoyama, undated

box 5, folder 3-13

Edo, undated

box 5, folder 14-18

Edo-Meiji, undated

box 6

Unidentified eras, undated

box 6, folder 1-5

Ceramics, undated

box 6, folder 6

Lacquer, undated

box 6, folder 7

Masks, undated

box 6, folder 8

Decorative arts, undated

box 6, folder 9-12

Sculpture, undated

box 7, folder 1

Gandharan, undated

box 7, folder 2

Himalayan, undated

box 7, folder 3

Indian, undated

box 7, folder 4

Korean, undated

box 7, folder 5

Southeast Asian, undated

box 7, folder 6

Asian/Far Eastern, unidentified culture undated

box 8, 20

African, undated

box 8, folder 1

Angola, undated

box 8, folder 2

Cameroon, undated

box 8, folder 3

Congo, undated

box 8, folder 4

Gabon, undated

box 8, folder 5

Ivory Coast, undated

box 8, folder 6

Liberia, undated

box 8, folder 7

Mali, undated

box 8, folder 8-10

Nigeria, undated

box 8, folder 11

Sierra Leone, undated

box 8, folder 12

Upper Volta, undated

box 8, folder 13-17

Unidentified nations, undated

box 20

Color polaroids and transparencies, undated

box 9, folder 1

Central American, undated

box 9, 20

Mexican, undated

box 9, folder 14-19

American Indigenous, undated

box 9, 20

South American, undated

box 9, 20

Oceanian, undated

box 10, 20

Egyptian, undated

box 10, folder 1-4

Animals, undated

box 10, folder 5

Masks, undated

box 10, folder 6

Decorative arts, undated

box 10, folder 7

Museum views, undated

box 10, folder 8

Orient Occident Gallery, undated

box 10, folder 9

Paintings, undated

box 10, folder 10

Pottery, undated

box 10, folder 11-15

Sculpture, undated

box 20

Color polaroids and transparencies, undated

box 10, 20

Coptic, undated

box 11, 20

Aegean, undated

box 11, folder 6

Cypriot, undated

box 11, 20

Greek, undated

box 11, folder 7-10

Decorative arts, undated

box 11, folder 11-12

Pottery, undated

box 11, folder 13-15

Sculpture, undated

box 20

Color polaroids and transparencies, undated

box 12, folder 1

Villanovan, undated

box 12, 20

Etruscan, undated

box 12, folder 4

Centuripae, undated

box 12, 20

Roman, undated

box 12, folder 5

Decorative arts, undated

box 12, folder 6

Mosaic, undated

box 12, folder 7-20

Sculpture, undated

box 12, folder 21

Vessels, undated

box 20

Color polaroids and transparencies, undated

box 12, folder 22

Palmyrene, undated

box 12, folder 23

Byzantine, undated

box 13, 19, 20

Greco-Roman, undated

box 13, 19

Decorative arts, undated

box 13, folder 4-11

Sculpture, undated

box 13, folder 12-13

Vases and vessels, undated

box 20

Color polaroids and transparencies, undated

box 13, folder 15

Greek/Roman, copies and fakes, undated

box 14, 20

Near East, undated

box 14, 20

Day Collection, undated

box 15, folder 1

Austrian, undated

box 15, folder 2

English, undated

box 15, folder 3-4

Flemish, undated

box 15, folder 5-7

French, undated

box 15, folder 8-10

German, undated

box 15-16, 19, 20

Northern European, undated

box 15, folder 11

Drawings, undated

box 15, 19

Decorative arts, undated

box 16, folder 1-8

Sculpture, undated

box 20

Color polaroids and transparencies, undated

box 17, folder 1

European, unidentified nations, undated

box 17, 19, 20

Italian, undated

box 17, folder 2

Cameo, undated

box 17, folder 3

Ceramics, glass and mosaic, undated

box 17, 19

Drawings, undated

box 17, folder 5-10

Sculpture, undated

box 20

Color polaroids, 1972

box 17, folder 11-12

Spanish, undated

box 21-22

Negatives, undated

box 23

Slides, undated

Series II. Miscellaneous papers, 1935-1978, undated

Physical Description: 0.4 Linear Feet (1 box)

box 18, folder 1

Inventory of archival documents, undated

box 18, folder 32

Bolivar signed painting photographs, 1970

box 18, folder 2

Clippings, undated

box 18, folder 3-14

Correspondence, 1935-1978

box 18, folder 3

Bruce, Alpine, 1974, 1977-1978

box 18, folder 4

Bier, Justus, 1957

box 18, folder 5

Borheim, Walter, 1953

box 18, folder 6

Bretschneider, Ludwig, 1977

box 18, folder 7

Burchard, Otto, 1946, 1953, 1956-1958

box 18, folder 8

Hollart, 1955

box 18, folder 9

Packard, Harry, undated

box 18, folder 10

Randall, Richard H., 1955, 1959

box 18, folder 11

Suida, William, 1955

box 18, folder 12

Tietze, Hans and Erica, 1953-1954

box 18, folder 13

Voss, Hermann, 1955

box 18, folder 14

Witt, Robert, 1949

box 18, folder 15-23

Chinese, circa 1940-1951, undated

box 18, folder 15

Art photographs notebook/binder, circa 1940

box 18, folder 16

Chou lacquer works, photographs from Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, undated

box 18, folder 17-19

Imperial Porcelain of the Ming Dynasty, exhibition by Mathias Komor, 1951

box 18, folder 20

Kuanyin statue photographs, 1950

box 18, folder 21

Ming landscape scroll manuscript, translations & description by Alan Packard, 1946

box 18, folder 22

Mirrors photographs, undated

box 18, folder 23

Paintings photographs, undated

box 19, folder 4

Shang photographs, undated

box 18, folder 24

Egyptian, Frosch und Kroete bei den alten Aegyptern article by Fritz Egger, 1935

box 18, folder 37

Far eastern bronze, color photographs from Mr. Rice, undated

box 18, folder 25

Galerie Kamer, photographs of artifacts, 1963

box 18, folder 26

Greco-Roman, color photographs of artifacts, 1956

box 18

Japanese, 1955, 1971, undated

box 18, folder 27

Catalog of Japanese Collection, list by M.C. Packard, includes photographs, 1955

box 18, folder 28

Fujinara Buddhist tile, photographs and description, undated

box 18, folder 29

Haniwa from Matsubara photographs, undated

box 18, folder 30

Jomon pottery photographs, from Everett Rassiga, undated

box 18, folder 35

Unidentified man in Japan color photographs, undated

box 19, folder 5

Komor office blueprints, 1958

box 18, folder 33

Komor office views, photographs by Richard Averill Smith, undated

box 18, folder 31

Personal reminder lists written on envelope, undated

box 18, folder 34

Unidentified photographs, undated

box 18, folder 36

Varia, 1970, undated