Netsuke & Inro Artists, and How to Read Their Signatures (in 2 volumes)

First edition, first printing, 1982. ISBN is given as 091706402X. Printed in Hong Kong. Approx. 11.5 x 8.75 inches. Note: this is the cloth-bound edition, not the deluxe leather-bound edition. Gray buckram linen-like hardboards, with crisp black-stamped lettering and embossing all around. Unbumped spine head and tail, and sharp corners. Exceptionally clean bindings. Text blocks firmly bound in and quite tight. Lovely patterned endpapers/FEPs in a design suggestive of a map of Japan and its provinces. Vol. I with 840 numbered pages, Vol. II with 841-1376 numbered pages, all on coated stock. Both volumes with countless duotone photo images of various works of netsuke and inro and their signatures, as detailed below. The first volume also with 24 pages of full color plates exhibiting items from the collection of Verna and George Lazarnick. Immensely clean interiors. Both volumes with custom-fitted transparent plastic protective covers. Also included is the publisher's folding-paper pamphlet of instructions and promotions, the pamphlet in unblemished condition. A Near Fine set of two volumes. Either unread or very gently read. Scarce in any condition. It seems unlikely that a set exists in finer condition. 12 lbs. 7 oz. This two volume work was without doubt the most comprehensive, extremely well researched, study of its subject to be published by 1982. It will probably remain unsurpassed for all time. Included are 3839 photographs of subjects, 3946 photographs of signatures and inscriptions, and include the work of 2112 artists, many of whom are recorded here for the first time. In addition, 1151 characters are shown in their kaisho (printed) form, their sosho and gyosho (cursive) equivalents, with their readings and, where relevant, their meanings. With these are 5988 photographs of the same characters as they were formed by the artists themselves.…