The Pictorial Arts of Japan With a Brief Historical Sketch of the Associated Arts And Some Remarks Upon the Pictorial Art of the Chinese and Koreans

Boston; New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1886. Cloth. Good. 17" by 12". Various. A scarce four volume work on Japanese art, by William Anderson, fully illustrated throughout. Illustrated throughout with numerous plates and vignettes demonstrating examples of the art. 39 of forty plates to volume III. Part IV has sixteen plates, of those listed to the 'List of Plates' to the contents, this work is lacking plates 19,38,39 and 40. To plate 35 of volume III the headpiece has been cut from the descriptive leaf. Further cuts to the leaf. Would appear the plate has also been removed and then loosely inserted is an image by Kikycgi Yosai of Yamato Takeru, the image intended to be this plate. Written by William Anderson, an English surgeon and important Japanese art collector and scholar. Anderson was the first chairman of the Japan society and in 1881 the British museum acquired of 2000 Japanese and Chinese paintings from Anderson. The same year as this work he wrote his Descriptive and Historical Account of a Collection of Japanese and Chinese paintings in the British museum which was a pioneering work. In uniform cloth bindings with pictorial front boards. Volume IV is a portfolio holding plates. Externally, rubbed to the spines and extremities. Library shelf number written to the spines of all volumes. Bumping to the extremities. Spokane Public Library stamp to the front pastedown of all volumes. Front endpaper to volume I has detached but present. Front hinge to volumes II and III are strained but firm. Tape repairs to front endpapers and first leaf to volume III. Library stamp to the verso of title page to volume I numbered 72112. 72113 stamped to the first leaf of volume II, 72114 to first leaf of volume III and to plate 25, 72115 is to the portfolio of volume IV. Internally, all volumes are generally firmly bound. To plate 35 of volume III the headpiece has been cut from the descriptive leaf. Further cuts to the leaf. Would appear the plate has also been removed and then loosely inserted is an image by Kikycgi Yosai of Yamato Takeru, the image intended to be this plate. Closed tears and small chips to the bottom of pages to volume III from the delicate nature of the paper and where it has been turned. Heavy chipping to the plates and leaves to part IV with some leaves creased also. Pages are bright to all volumes with the odd spots. Good