Eric Chaim Kline, Bookseller - Old and Rare Books

How to Wrap 5 Eggs. Japanese Design in Traditional Packaging [Fine inPublishjers Slipbox]

Oka, Hideyuki; Nelson, George (Foreword)

Tokyo: Bijutsu Shuppan-Sha and John Weatherhill Inc., 1967. First American edition. Hardcover. Large Quarto. 203 [1]pp. Original black quarter cloth over glossy white paper-covered boards with blind-stamped, lettered square on cover, white lettering and publisher's device on spine, in original photo-illustrated black dustjacket with white lettering on spine; housed in light brown cardboard slipcase with black lettering on yellow label. Gray endpapers with map. Double page title page with Japanese and English lettering and publisher's device. Originally published in Japanese in 1965. Profusely illustrated with 222 spectacular plates of photogravures, eight in color. Contains commentaries on the plates by Hideyuki Oka with thumbnail images for each description at rear.

"This handsome gallery of color and black-and-white gravure photographs celebrates traditional Japanese techniques of packaging. As the eminent American designer George Nelson writes: "This book is all about a once-common sense of fitness in the relationships between hand, material, use, and shape; above all, a sense of delight in the look and feel of very ordinary, humble things." Clearly this is a book to inspire designers. In capturing the principles of Japanese design, Hideyuki Oka goes beyond packaging to reveal the urge toward visual harmony that has produced the beauties of Japanese architecture, gardening, sculpture, painting – and the unique charm of the throw-away teapot one still buys for a few pennies on a Japanese railway platform." (Publisher). Very light wear to edges of dustjacket and block and slipcase lightly age-toned, not affecting images. Very good+ condition. Item #53490

Price: $375.00