China Books

(For this item please quote stock ID 1124) ISBN: 9787119012643

A reprint of this rare volume offers a detailed review of hardwood furniture from early Shang to late Ming Dynasties. Suitable for the collector or craftsman. (For this item please quote stock ID 16119) ISBN: 9780486251714

(For this item please quote stock ID 19295) ISBN: 9789620408199

Whether genuine Ming dynasty masterpieces or well made reproductions, an abundance of superb photographs illustrates a resplendence of armchairs, beds, screens, cabinets and wardrobes, making this book in itself a collector's item for those who treasure style in the form of classic Chinese furniture. (For this item please quote stock ID 21889) ISBN: 9789627283430

(For this item please quote stock ID 22568) ISBN: 9789620414398

More than 4,000 high quality pictures of jades unearthed in China during a period of 80 years. This comprehensive work was compiled by numerous jadeware experts. (For this item please quote stock ID 26197) ISBN: 9787030160096

The primary sources provided on the [Enduring Legacy of Ancient China] CD save valuable teacher time and support student proclivity for interaction with technology for research." -Elsie Wu, Andover Public Schools, Andover, MA Both an illustrated teacher's guide and a textbook, The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China: Primary Source Lessons for Teachers and Students offers teachers and students a treasure trove of resources. Authored by Primary Source, the book and CD-ROM combine thoughtful lessons with vivid, authentic materials that create opportunities for students to form their own understanding of Chinese culture and artifacts. The first of two volumes, it will be followed by a companion on modern China. The lessons in The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China are organized in a modular way so teachers have the flexibility to select the order in which they teach an entire course. Schools who do not offer a course dedicated to Chinese culture may choose one or more chapters as China segments within their existing world studies course. The first of two volumes, The Enduring Legacy of Ancient China will be followed by a companion on modern China. (For this item please quote stock ID 27703) ISBN: 9780887275081

Since at least the early sixth century C.E., ink rubbings of stone, metal, clay tiles, and wood inscriptions and pictorial images have been used in China to make precise copies of culturally valued material. These paper copies sometimes are all that remain of original works that have become illegible through erosion, or that have been destroyed by war or development, or have been rendered inaccessible through events such as flooding resulting from dam construction. Chinese rubbing techniques are used throughout East Asia to create copies that often also are prized in themselves as works of art. Despite the primary importance of this technology to history, art, archaeology, printing, and many other fields of knowledge, Black Tigers is the first comprehensive study of rubbings in a Western language, and as such will be welcomed by both scholars and collectors. In Black Tigers, Kenneth Starr recounts what he has seen and learned in fifty years of fascination with rubbings and travels to China in search of the early inscriptions from which they came. The book is a history of rubbings, a guide to connoisseurship, and a technical handbook on the materials and techniques used to make rubbings. Now readers of English, with the author as their affable guide, can gain rich insight into a rigorous discipline of classical scholarship, the way in which traditional scholars viewed their world, and some of the exquisite subtleties of Chinese high culture and connoisseurship. Black Tigers will be an essential resource for students of Chinese art, history, calligraphy, archaeology, and the history of printing. (For this item please quote stock ID 29258) ISBN: 9780295988115

Among the most beautiful of the world's domestic art forms are Chinese snuff bottles: miniature bottle-shaped flasks, often of astounding intricacy and tactile appeal. Continuing the interest shown by earlier Images of Asia titles in collectables from the region, this book introduces the Chinese snuff bottle to prospective collectors. The author, consultant to Sotheby's on the topic, guides the reader through the history of snuff-taking, then surveys the many varieties of snuff bottles available, putting particular emphasis on materials and decoration techniques. (For this item please quote stock ID 8899) ISBN: 9780195857566

Part of the educational and beautifully produced Cultural China Series, this book focuses on the cultural relics which remain of one of the oldest civilizations in the world. It gives a brief account of the 12 types of relics unearthed in China so far, and discusses them as representative objects which provide a glimpse into China?s past. In vivid color, with illustrations and photographs accompanying the text throughout.
(For this item please quote stock ID 31734) ISBN: 9787508504568

The Beijing Palace Museum, on the grounds of the former Forbidden City, has in its collection some of the most valuable clocks and watches manufactured during the 18th and 19th centuries - they are not only timepieces but also objects of superb craftsmanship. This book exhibits more than 150 clocks and watches from the collection. They are masterpieces from all over the world - Britain, France, Switzerland, Italy, the United States, Japan, and China. Each illustration is accompanied by an introduction written by specialists from the Palace Museum, describing the design, structure and special characteristics of each object. (For this item please quote stock ID 20760) ISBN: 9787119030500

One hundred antique Chinese carpets - representing the broad spectrum of design, style and techniques - are presented in this wonderful volume. Great colour photographs and bilingual text and captions. (For this item please quote stock ID 24280) ISBN: 9787501537600

Chinese classical furniture is esteemed throughout the world for its beauty, functionalism, and influence on contemporary design aesthetics. Sarah Handler's stunningly illustrated volume traces Chinese hardwood furniture from its earliest origins in the Shang dynasty (c1500 to c1050 B.C.) to the present. She offers a fascinating and poetic view of Chinese furniture as functional sculpture, a fine art alongside the other Chinese arts of calligraphy, architecture, painting, and literature. Handler, a widely respected scholar of Chinese furniture, uses her knowledge of Chinese social, political, and economic history to provide a backdrop for understanding the many nuances of this art form. Drawing on literary and visual evidence from excavated materials, written texts, paintings, prints, and engravings, she discusses how people lived, their notions of hierarchy, and their perceptions of space. Her descriptions of historical developments, such as the shift from mats to chairs, evoke the psychological and sociological ramifications. The invention of a distinctive way to support and contain people and things within the household is one of China's singular contributions, says Handler. With more than three hundred exquisite illustrations, many in colour, Handler's comprehensive study reveals 'the magical totality of Chinese classical furniture, from its rich surfaces and shrewd proportions down to the austere soul of art that resides in the hardwood interiors.' Austere Luminosity recognises Chinese classical furniture as one of China's premier arts, unique in the furniture traditions of the world. (For this item please quote stock ID 24385) ISBN: 9780520214842

An ideal commingling of exquisite and often rare materials, perfection in craftsmanship and exceptional purity of line are what place Ming design, particularly in furniture, at the zenith of Chinese art. Ming Furniture in the Light of Chinese Architecture is the first book to show the essential kinship between Ming furniture and the buildings they were designed to be placed and used within. Sarah Handler?s special perspective sheds a luminous glow on the concepts of interior and exterior form, function, placement, and purpose and reveals the inextricably intertwined relationship of Ming furniture to Chinese architecture. Decoration, construction, and function come together into a harmonious and indivisible whole, just as the Chinese artisans envisioned. Features: >With 50 black-and-white architectural drawings & 60 full-colour photographs illustrating spectacular examples of Ming furniture from private & museum collections around the world >The first book to place Ming furniture design within the context of Chinese architectural intent. Sarah Handler has been professor of Chinese Art History at UCLA and the University of Michigan, and curator of the Museum of Classical Chinese Furniture. She currently resides in Oakland, California. (For this item please quote stock ID 24386) ISBN: 9781580085595

(For this item please quote stock ID 14784) ISBN: 9789620413612

(For this item please quote stock ID 14778) ISBN: 9789620404634

China has long been a "country of jade" that shines in world civilization history. The Chinese nation has respected, honored, revered, loved and cherished jade for a history of over 8,000 years. Chinese jade art, veiled in mystery and carrying spiritual sustenance for people, has been deeply root in traditional Chinese culture and played a role in every aspect of Chinese social life. (For this item please quote stock ID 31091) ISBN: 9787508513317

Chinese Furniture is an outstanding representative of the Chinese arts. It has the bright feature of oriental arts and is honored as a pearl in oriental arts. As for the unique feature of Chinese furniture, some say it can completely give full play to the inborn nature of wood and display the beauty of the texture of wood. Some say it has perfect artistic shape. Its lines are delicate, easy and smooth and its structure reasonable and elegant. Some say its producing technique is superb, tendon and mortise precise and decorations elegant. Some say it has long historical grace, elegant artistic style and colorful charm? (For this item please quote stock ID 31147) ISBN: 9787508513218

Mingsha, which literally means 'famous mountains', refers to a group of mountains in China that have been set apart for special veneration since ancient times. Over the centuries, the famous mountains as a conceptual term has been continually (re)invented, (re)framed and (re)appropriated by different ideological systems. Treating landscape painting as yet another framing system, in both the symbolic and material sense, this book examines sixteenth-century paintings of famous mountains by three major artists in the light of a diachronic account of the evolution of famous mountains over time and a synchronic account of the vogue for the grand tour in late Ming society. The author adopts a cultural approach in describing the significance of paintings of famous mountains in late Ming and delves into the cultural imagery of famous mountains and their pictorial representation and artistic presentation. This book helps the reader understand Chinese landscape painting from a new and refreshing perspective. (For this item please quote stock ID 28736) ISBN: 9789629963293

[Indent] Dr. Elizabeth Childs-Johnson is a foremost authority in Chinese art and culture. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Institute of Fine Arts of New York University. She has taken an active role in saving archaeological sites in China, and was China's primary consultant for the recent award winning PBS documentary Great Wall across the Yangtze. Dr. Childs-Johnson is the author of numerous books and articles on Asian art and Chinese jade, including Metamorphic Imagery in Early Chinese Art, University of Hawaii Press, and Lustrous, Enduring & Translucent: Jades from Traditional China, Weisbrod Chinese Art Ltd. 'China is one of the three great jade cultures of the ancient world, including Meso-America (primarily Mexico) and New Zealand. Of the three, China has had the oldest and longest tradition of working jade, appreciating jade's sacred properties, and holding jade as a most esteemed symbol of culture. Jade, a powerful, magical, and alluring substance, is ingrained in the culture of ancient China. Known as the Jewel of Heaven due to its brilliant and translucent essence, it symbolised life itself. For many, jade was not merely a valuable mineral of high density but an organic entity representing physical and spiritual permanence' - From the Introduction by Spencer Throckmorton. (For this item please quote stock ID 20685) ISBN: 9788475065182