PARACAS EMBROIDERIES A Study of Repeated Patterns

Wear at top and bottom of spine. Internally about fine. Jacket is very, very worn. ; Approx. 140 pages. 31 sepia-tone full-page plates. From the flap: "From a painstaking examination of the perfectly embroidered textiles wrapped around the 429 mummies recently exhumed at the paracas site, the author has made a significant contribution to our knowledge of the early Peruvian culture. The astounding variety in pattern and coloring in these embroideries cannot be overemphasized. We must marvel that a group of Peruvian Indians with very crude equipment did some things better than we can do them. But high aesthetically as Paracas textiles rank even when judged supficially, they have a still more significant value for us which only intensive study reveals: the understanding of the mental processes that produced them and the employment of these ideas in the enrichment of our own culture. Thirty-one beautiful illustrations of embroidered mantles, loin cloths, skirts, mantillas, shawls, etc. , aid us in this fascinating study. " ; 4to. …