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Chinese Pattern Book (1 results)
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Chinese carpet workshop pattern book
Published by Shanghai c1920, 1920
Seller: Hünersdorff Rare Books ABA ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Seller Rating:
Manuscript / Paper Collectible
Hardcover. Condition: Good. No Jacket. Chinese Art Deco period carpet designs. Workshop pattern book with 21 original hand-painted gouache designs mounted on rectos of laid-paper album leaves representing a variety of samples with specifications for producing a range of qualities of woolen rug in 2 sizes; designs measuring from 220 x 192mm to 266 x 197mm; 220 x 220mm. Shanghai, c. 1920 Large 4to. Overall size : 450 x 350 mm. Contemporary greenish-grey cloth over stiff boards; decorative floral endpapers; yellow printed binder s ticket (Nanyang Printing Co, Book-Binder and Stationary, 435 Kiukiang Road, Shanghai) pasted inside top corner of frontcover. The blank margin of each design incorporates the colour palette used; top margin of each design page with a pasted contemporary paper slip giving a typed code-word to explain the knot or line count of each individual sample,and the sizes of the rugs available for production : 9 x 12 ft & 8 x 10 ft; a typed note pasted inside frontcover provides a key for 7 of the code words and their quality specifications (the code words refer to qualities ranging from a 120 line Wool Rug to a 60 line Wool Rug , each type decreasing in density of knots by 10 lines , the number of lines of knots per foot determining the line count); the blank margins of 5 designs (nos 4, 12, 14, 15, 20) have brief pencil and pen instructions in American-English with finishing details; blank margins of 3 pages (nos 3, 4, 7) bear a blind-stamp of the anonymous artist s emblem with an elephant motif. The patterns in the present album appear to have been painted by a commercial artist working in a Shanghai carpet factory under American direction catering for western consumer tastes. The carefully executed designs, based on the traditional medallion type, arer richly ornamented with exquisite floral and chinoiserie motifs in vibrant colours evocative of the exuberance of Art Deco: traditional light blues have changed to darker shades, yellows and ivories are replaced by more dynamic purples, fuchsias, green, ochre and gold. Both designs and colouring are well preserved; blank corners of album leaves lightly waterstained, a few minor traces of usage, otherwise in remarkably good condition for a working manual of this kind. Chinese Art Deco rugs represent the Golden Age of Shanghai, then known as the Paris of the East . Its wool industries responded to western demand during the economic boom of the 1920ies by producing high quality carpets in the fashionable colours and patterns of the period. A number of American.entrepreneurs were involved in this process, notably Walter Nichols and Helen Fette, and the present album is representative of patterns selected for export by a factory under western direction.
