Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice older book in good condition. Some tanning wear and marking due to age. Hardcover. English. See images for condition.

About the book >.>.> There its productions in picturesque disorder have appealed to the undiscriminating glance of the passerby who indeed could not help being fascinated by the undeniable charm of nicknacks made only for exportation but who did not consider that what he saw was no more than the vague reflection of an art which was formerly vigorous and sound. He could not know that the sculptured groups whose effeminate forms he admired had some masterpiece of life and expression for their prototype; he has not been told that yonder garish vase is but a feeble imitation of a piece of pottery marvellous in colour and technical perfection. It is not surprising that he admired a sample of tissue woven in the period of decadence for he has never seen any of those sumptuous stuffs which the artist in embroidery of the feudal times covered with harmonious tints in a style of lordly grandeur. Even the artist when he stopped to admire the drawings and engravings sketched with the cleverness of the race by some draftsman of modern Japan knew naught of the wonderful albums in which the genius of the famous masters of the bygone time was matched by that of the engravers who interpreted and multiplied their works. (OS)