Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller

兩宋名畫册 [Liang Sung ming hua tse/ Liang Song ming hua ce] Album Paintings of the North and South Sung Dynasties

張珩 Chang, Heng (ed.)

北京 Pekin (Beijing): 文物出版社 (Wen Wu Press), 1979. Ex-library, second edition. Hardcover. Folio (15 1/4 x 12 1/2"). [16]pp (Text in Chinese), [4]pp (English table of contents), 六O (60) leaves (Plates), [2]pp. Original embroidered olive silk with gold lettering to spine and front cover. Book housed in its original cloth-lined cardboard box, with a printed title laid on the front cover. The box itself is housed in the publisher's original cardboard box, with the printed title on the front cover. In original protective glassine wrapper.

Regarded as the golden era of Chinese painting and pottery, the Sung dynasties can indeed be seen as the highlight in the development of traditional painting. The main themes of Sung paintings were landscapes (山水 "mountains and water"), birds and flowers (花鳥), figure painting (人物畫) as well as bamboo, birds, insects, horses and other plants and animals.

Adorned with 60 spectacular mounted color reproductions of paintings on debossed paper. The subjects of the paintings include birds, flowers, fishermen, boats, children at play, comedians, monkeys, wild geese and ducks, players, travelers, musicians, landscapes, bamboo and plum blossoms, representing a breathtaking journey to ancient China through the work of artists from the North and South Sung dynasties (960-1279). The paintings are from the collections of the National Palace Museum, the Shanghai Museum, Liaoning Provincial Museum, Sichaun Provincial Museum and The Suzhou Cultural Relics Commission, with each painting including descriptive and historical text annotations.

The paintings of the following artists are featured: 趙徽宗 Chao Chi (1101-1126); 朱銳 Chu Juei; 揚无咎 Yang Wu-chiu (1097-1169); 蘇漢臣 Su Hanchen (active 1130s-1160s); 馬和之 Ma Ho-chi; 趙大亨 Chao Ta-heng; 林樁 Lin Chun; 張擇端 Chang Tse-tuan (1085-1145); 馬遠 Ma Yuan (ca 1160-1225); 馬麟 Ma Lin (ca 1180-1256); 夏圭 Hsia Kuei (active 1195-1224); 樸菴 Pu An; 劉松年 Liu Sung-nien (1174-1224); 侯筌 Ho Chuan; 朱惟德 Chu Wei-teh; 趙孟堅 Chao Meng-chien (1199-1295).

The artists of forty of the sixty artworks featured in this book remain unidentified. Minor shelf wear to both boxes.

Previous owner's bookplate on the inside of the back cover. Text and captions in Chinese, with a synopsis and table of contents in English. Boxes in overall good+ to very good, binding and interior in very good condition. vg. Item #41270

Price: $375.00