ALBUM PAINTINGS - NORTH & SOUTH SUNG / SONG DYNASTIES CHINESE RARE ART BOOK 1963

Description

For additional pictures, please go to:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/li5e01gmzrz2amb/AAB9NsbsqOcRIVCQyKvJXHjza?dl=0
Bibliographic Details
Title:
Album Paintings of the North and South Sung Dynasties
Publisher:
Wen Wu Press, Peking
Publication Date:
1963
Binding:
hardcover
60 tipped in color plates
20 pages of text, folio,
embroidered olive silk overhardcover
This is not a library edition
First edition. Hardcover. Folio (15 1/4 x 12 1/2")
16 pages of tex
t in Chinese,
4 pages of English text (table of contents),
60 pages / leaves / Plates)
Original embroidered olive silk with gold lettering to spine and front cover, w/ original protective glassine wrapper which does have damage.
CONDITION:
Used of course. The glassine clear wrapper that originally covered the book as protection has done its job but has paid the price as it's torn and crunched in some areas. The book's green embroidered silk cover does not have any tears or worn trhrough areas. The gold gilding on the front and side is in perfect shape. The corners are lightly scuffed. Inside, all (60) of the actual leaves / plates are in perfect condition. The thick cardboard pages that the prints are tacked onto do have some slight bends in some corners. The worst damage is at one pages in the book the binding has split and should be repaired.  I am not a dealer and do not know how to rate books. Please see the picture of the binding split and other views to rate the condition yourself. Please see additional pictures located at: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/li5e01gmzrz2amb/AAB9NsbsqOcRIVCQyKvJXHjza?dl=0  Additional pictures can be made available for serious bidders. We answer all questions quickly.
The book includes 60 spectacular mounted color reproductions of paintings on debossed paper includes birds, flowers, fishermen, boats, children at play, comedians, monkeys, wild geese and ducks, players, travelers, musicians, landscapes, bamboo and plum blossoms made by artists from the North and South Sung dynasties (960-1279). The paintings are from the collections of the National Palace Museum, the Shanghai Museum, Liaoning Provincial Museum, Sichaun Provincial Musuem and The Suzhou Cultural Relics Commission, with each painting including descriptive and historical text annotations.
Regarded as the golden era of Chinese painting and pot
tery, the Sung dynasties can indeed be seen as the highlight in the development of traditional painting. The main themes of Sung paintings were landscapes,
mountains and water, birds and flowers
, figure painting
as well as bamboo, birds,
insects, horses and other plants and animals.
The Sung dynasty (960-1279) succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and was followed by the Yuan dynasty. It was the first government in world history to issue banknotes or true paper money nationally and the first Chinese government to establish a permanent standing navy. This dynasty also saw the first known use of gunpowder, as well as the first discernment of true north using a compass. The Sung dynasty is divided into two distinct periods, Northern and Southern. During the Northern Sung (960-1127), the Sung capital was in the northern city of Bianjing (now Kaifeng) and the dynasty controlled most of what is now Eastern China. The Southern Sung (1127-1279) refers to the period after the Sung lost control of its northern half to the Jurchen Jin dynasty in the Jin-Sung Wars. During this time, the Sung court retreated south of the Yangtze and established its capital at Lin'an (now Hangzhou). Although the Sung dynasty had lost control of the traditional "birthplace of Chinese civilization" along the Yellow River, the Sung economy was still strong, as the Southern Sung Empire contained a large population and productive agricultural land.