A History of Japanese Lacquerwork

The exquisite art of Japanese lacquerwork has long had its share of devotees and collectors in the West. But there has been little to help them take the step from admiration to more exact knowledge, since only a handful of experts have access to the comprehensive, although not always systematic, Japanese literature on the subject.

This book is a translation form the German of the only western work on the history of the craft. Professor van Rague links the development of Japanese lacquerwork to dated pieces, giving a sequence of fixed reference points around which she fits numerous other significant but undated examples. She also clarifies the evolution of shape, design, and style, from prehistoric to present times, and discusses related arts such as ceramics, metalwork, and textiles to trace the relationship between the various branches of Japanese applied art and their influence on lacquerwork.

This book is lavishly illustrated with black and white and some color photographs of outstanding examples of Japanese lacquerwork, and is written in a style easy to read. Appendixes contain notes, a list of dated objects from 764 to 1964, a glossary of Japanese descriptive terms, a list of Japanese artists and technical terms with corresponding Japanese characters, a bibliography, and an index.

Text: English, German (translation)