Chinese Pictorial Art, with Supplement, 1914, E.A. Strehlneek, 1st edition

Chinese Pictorial Art; Illustrated by Coloured and Collotyped Reproductions from the Author's Collection with descriptions and Notes on the History of Drawing, Writing, Etc., Translated from Standard Chinese Authors. With a Supplement Illustrating a Few Interesting Pieces of Bronze, Ceramics and Jade. From the Collection of E. A. Strehlneek, which has Recently Been Acquired by Herr Klas Fahraeus of Brevik, Stolkholm.

Published by The Commercial Press, Limited, Shanghai, 1914. First edition. The book features a very fine collection of Chinese paintings, followed by beautiful examples of Chinese bronze, ceramic and jade artworks.

A very good copy of this beautiful book, which comes with its scarce dustjacket in good condition, which is usually absent. The green paper jacket is printed with a pictorial black cover design. The jacket is intact, with both flaps, and has shelf wear and rubbing. There is wear to extremities, particularly the head and tail of spine. On the spine there are 2 holes, each of about 5mm diameter, and on the rear there are 2 worn areas with further holes of approximately 3mm and 10mm.

The book itself is very good (approaching near fine). The cover has an elaborate blue/green silk design with gilt decor. The binding utilises tassled ties. Condition of the silk is good, but with some minor sunning to the top and lower edge. There are 2 worn areas on the rear matching the small holes in the paper dustjacket. The endpapers are brown in colour and are nicely presented. There is some minor cockling to the lower corners of the text pages at the beginning. The book features many tissue guarded pictorial plates, in colour and black and white.

The text pages are in very good condition throughout. Some occasional age spotting offset from the tissue guards. One tissue guard has a small 3cm nibble missing at the foot. The Supplement section had a title page on the same brown stock as the endpapers, with gilt titles.

Text is in English and Chinese.

Overall a most handsome example of this important work on Chinese art.

327pp (Pictorial Art) + 75pp (Supplement). Some of the use of roman numerals is a little unconventional, but all is as called for.

Dimensions: Approximately 285mm high x 224mm wide x 38mm deep.

Weight approximately 2.1kg unpacked.