Japanese Art Lacquers: with 40 plates by Benrido, KyotoU. A. Casal

Excerpt

Two centuries before Japan opened her gates to foreign intercourse in 1868, her culture already enjoyed a high if rather fanciful reputation in Europe. To a great extent this recognition was generated by one of her finest art-crafts, the gold lacquers. They were greeted as treasures of rare beauty, of great mystery and value; but their scarcity made them available only to the select few, envied by all the lesser collectors.

China freely supplied the many Salons and Cabinets de Chinoiseries with porcelains and bronzes, while India and Persia sent embroideries, carpets and brasses. The various international trade enterprises maintained by Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and English Companies had agencies in many an Asiatic port, and were able to buy such quantities and qualities of quaint ornaments as the home markets would absorb. An exception was the island empire of Japan which, since olden times, had only been in sporadic touch with its neighbours, and had remained practically unknown. The fact that its people were poor and that a feudalistic government, in repressing their development, effectively monopolized all art productions, no doubt was of the greatest moment in retarding its participation in this trade.

1961. 119 pages.
Hardback ¥2,000/$20.00/€20.00.
[Out of print]