By Imperial Command: An Introduction to Ch'ing Imperial Painted Enamels

Hibiya Company Ltd., Hong Kong, 1976 Book. Good. Hardcover. Signed by Author(s). 1st Edition. English text; 2 hardcover volumes with dust jacket in slip case.; 27.5 x 41 x 7 cm; 5.2 kg; The 2 volumes comprise: TEXT with 98 pages and PLATES with 87 colour plates (174 images, showing the front and rear of each piece).; Volume I, minor signs of wear on the exterior. Interior in very good condition apart from a few lines on three pages from the introduction that were highlighted with a green marker.; Volume II, minor signs of wear on the exterior. Interior in very good condition.; The slipcase shows signs of wear and a small crack on top.; LIMITED EDITION OF 1,000 COPIES OF WHICH THIS IS NUMBER 733. SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR HUGH MOSS.; "In this book I believe Hugh Moss has made a quite conclusive case for the authenticity of the yu chih marked porcelains. By doing so he has corrected a far-reaching error of recent Western scholarship in the field of Ch'ing porcelain. An essential part of his case rests on the distinction between the works of three main centres of decoration of Ch'ing porcelain manufactured at Ching-tê Chên. It has, perhaps, been the failure to make that distinction which has caused so much trouble in this most dificult area of Chinese ceramic study. I should also like to observe, with the privilege of hindsight of someone who in the past accepted unquestioningly the dismissal of the yu chic wares, that the traditionally accepted opinion of Chinese scholars should perhaps never have been so readily rejected, nor so little attention given to positive re-attribution of the yu chic wares to some later period, as is necessary if their authenticity is to be denied. " foreword by Julian Thompson..