An Introduction to the Study of Chinese Sculpture. London: Ernest Benn Ltd, 1924. First Edition - Deluxe Limited Edition.
London: Ernest Benn Ltd, 1924. First Edition - Deluxe Limited Edition. Hardcover. Quarto (11 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches), xviii + 114pp + (63) leaves of black and white plates on special coated photographic-type paper (printed on rectos only) and an unpaginated red and black map between pages 108 & 109. Colour frontispiece. Full brown pigskin leather, gilt titling and decorative rules to spine. Top edge gilt. Tipped in "Corrections" facing p. xviii. The deluxe edition, limited to 75 numbered copies (this being number 8) SIGNED by the author, printed on English hand-made paper, bound in pigskin, and with a colour frontispiece (that in the normal edition being black and white). According to the Foreword the book is "intended to provide a background for the systematic study of Chinese sculpture", and ranges from the Dark Ages to the end of the Ming dynasty. Appendices on "The Distribution of Cave-Sculpture in China" and "Forgeries and Restorations." The author, Sir Arthur Leigh Bolland Ashton FSA (1897–1983) was a British art historian and director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, who was aided with translations by Arthur Waley. Ownership signature of renowned Asian art collector and philanthropist C. Adrian Rubel on front free endpaper. Sensible pencilled marginalia (presumably by Rubel) mostly linking passages of the text to the plates, and vice-versa, throughout. Leather lightly rubbed at points and joints, edges dusty, otherwise a tight, clean VG+ copy (believe this edition issued without dust jacket). Item #61404
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