Vantine’s Buddha Sandalwood Incense Tin

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An Art Deco Buddha: Ashley Vantine arrived in the newly opened port of Yokohama in 1861 looking to start an American import business. By the turn of the 20th century, A.A.Vantine & Co. had become one of the most influential importers of “Oriental” goods into the US.

First positioning itself as an authority of Japanese goods, by the 1890s Vantine’s shifted to a more eclectic mass-market approach. With a famous flagship store on Broadway in New York and a successful mail order business, Vantine’s goods circulated across the US.

By the 1910s it was becoming commonplace for more Americans to display Buddhist statuary in their homes to signify exotic taste. Vantine’s helped supply this growing market.

As the cosmetics market blossomed after WWI, Vantine’s shifted to perfumes and incense, often advertised with Buddhist imagery.

Valuable materials from the Vantine’s company are held by the Winterthur Museum Library. A mail order catalogue from 1914 is viewable here: https://tinyurl.com/4a7mhtst

The Buddhas in the West Material Archive is a digital scholarship project that catalogues artifacts depicting Buddhist material culture for Western audiences. It’s comprised of prints, photos, and an assortment of ephemera and other objects. For a brief introduction to this archive, visit the main Buddhas in the West project page.

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