August 11 is Mountain Day in Japan. It is a very new holiday, first officially observed in 2016, but mountains have held extremely important roles in Japanese art and culture for much longer. Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest mountain, is one of the country’s most celebrated sights. Associated with deities in ancient times, it is a World Heritage Site today and draws crowds of tourists and climbers. Historically, it has been a favorite subject for poems and is a familiar sight in fine and decorative arts.

The eight-panel screen shown here, which sold for $248 at Tremont Auctions, depicts a landscape in ink on gold paper, dominated by Mount Fuji’s iconic snow-capped peak. A group of figures walks along the foreground among hills, trees, and water. This is a procession of daimyo, regional feudal lords, making their way to Edo, the capital of Japan, renamed Tokyo in 1868. During the Edo period, from about 1600 to 1868, daimyo were required to travel to Edo every other year. These processions were a popular subject in art, and long, paneled screens were an especially effective medium for depicting them.

These screens were still made after the Edo period; the screen shown dates to about 1900. Mount Fuji often appears in the background of these scenes, as it does here. In addition to the beauty and symbolism of the mountain itself, it offers a sense of scale, making the figures look small in comparison and indicating how long their journey was.

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Q: I would like to know anything you can tell me about a chess/checkerboard. It is reverse-painted on glass with a wooden frame. The board has green and black checkers and a black border with flowers. It must be fairly old, since I bought it from a neighbor 50 years ago and it is still in the same condition.

A: Homemade, hand-painted game boards are well-loved among folk art collectors. Most of them date from about 1850 to 1920. Wooden game boards are the most common, but there are some painted on sheet metal or, like yours, reverse-painted on glass. Reverse-painting on glass has been practiced as early as the 14th century but became a popular hobby in America in the Victorian era. By then, there were established methods to transfer the outline of a picture onto the glass, so all that the painter had to do was fill in the spaces. Sometimes additions like mother-of-pearl or shiny silver or gold foil were included. Antique reverse paintings on glass are usually found in their original frames; they are very delicate, and re-framing can cause damage. If you are interested in selling your board, finding a buyer shouldn’t be difficult. Folk art game boards sell at antique stores and general antiques auctions. If you can find a folk art show in your area, or a dealer or auction house that lists folk art or Americana among its specialties, even better. Reverse-painted glass game boards have sold for anywhere from about $65 to $350 at recent auctions. Folk art is one collecting category where age, maker, and even condition are not necessarily as important as aesthetics. Generally, the more colorful the board and the more interesting the design, the higher the value.

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Q: I have a “Cox-Roosevelt Club” campaign button and would like to know its value. Could you please advise? It has photographs of both candidates’ faces in blue and the words are in red.

A: If your button is authentic and in good condition, you have something extremely valuable. Political button collectors describe buttons from the 1920 Presidential campaign for James M. Cox and his running mate, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in terms like “holy grail,” “unicorn,” or “crown jewel.” They are extremely rare. Relatively few were made, and even fewer have survived in perfect condition. We recommend contacting a specialist in political memorabilia, like Hake’s Auctions (hakes.com), whose founder, Ted Hake, is a leading expert on political buttons and has written many books on the subject. In 2024, a 1-inch diameter Cox-Roosevelt Club button like yours sold at Hake’s Auctions for more than $30,000! Details like size, manufacturer, and even positioning of the image are important. Turn your button around and check the curl (the part that meets the metal backing) for a manufacturer’s name. The button that sold at Hake’s was made by and marked for M.F. Shafer & Co. There were other manufacturers, too. Looking at the curl is also one of the easiest ways to spot a reproduction button; they are often marked with dates later than the campaign they picture, the name of the country where they were made, or even the word “Reproduction” or “Repro.”

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TIP: Some types of fumes can damage paper. Don’t store your collection near the kitchen, garage, barbecue pit, or freshly painted areas.