Tokio [Tokyo, Japan]: Insetszkioku [ kurash Insatsukyoku], [circa 1880-1881].
Price: $600.00
Hardcover. Three series in one volume. Quarto. Incomplete: 38 double-page color lithographic plates and 2 double-page plates of Japanese text, concertina folded within two brocade silk covered boards with a printed paper label tipped-in on each cover. Captions and text in Japanese. Beautifully printed plates in multiple colors, including gold and silver, of architectural plans and Temple buildings; bowls, rosaries, brushes, and other vessels used by Buddhist priests; and numerous other antiquities, including knives, girdles, mirrors, bronze and stone vessels, and various wooden staffs with bronze metal work. Tipped-in on the pastedown of the rear cover is a printed label in English identifying the objects depicted on 12 plates issued in the series [Shosoin gyobutsu]: "The Book containing copies of antiques, stored as treasures in Shosowin, the imperial treasure-house at Nara." The remaining 27 double-page plates includes all or most of the plates issued in the second series: [Ise naigai shinpobu], and additional plates from the third series: [Kosho no bu]. We cannot determine the exact total number of plates originally issued in the last two series, as this copy lacks any additional contents labels in English. Ex-library copy with a small bookplate on the rear free endpaper, else no other markings. One plate is neatly split in half along the center fold, the concertina fold is separated in a few sections along the edges of the plates, darkening to the boards, light scattered soiling, very good.
Item #372345