Impey, Oliver R.; Jörg, Christiaan — Japanese Export Laquer 1580-1850

Book Very Good Dust Jacket Included 1st Edition Hotei Publishing, Amsterdam English text; Hardcover (cloth with dust jacket in slipcase); 25.5 x 33 cm; 3 kg; 384 pages with 650 illustrations mainly in colour. Includes ribbon bookmark; Used book with signs of wear on the slipcase, namely edge wear, scuffs and wear marks. Signs of wear on the dust jacket. The interior of the book is in very good condition.; Japanese Laquer ranks among the most beautiful crafts produced in Asia for Western markets and had a profound influence on European art and decoration. The quantities shipped from Japan in the period 1580-1850 and the documentation available underscore the need for the study of this material. This publication is the first full treatment of lacquerware made to European demand, its trade in Asia and Europe, as well as the effect of lacquer and its use in a European context. Trading patterns are described in detail, based on documentary evidence of Westerners in the Far East and on the important and comprehensive archives of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Furthermore, the archives of the English East India Company as well as Japanese sources yielded important information. Reference is also made to records of American ships' captains and officers from New England. Full use is made of contemporary comments and inventories in Europe. The authors describe and illustrated the huge variety of known lacquer shapes and decorations produced for Asian and European markets, starting with Namban lacquer, the demand for which was initiated by the Portuguese. Private English and Dutch merchants followed, but it was the VOC which included Japanese lacquer as a commercial item in its assortment, making it widely available in the seventeenth century. In the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries private trade resumed, ordering specific shapes and decorations, sometimes bases on European models. Japanese lacquer was widely recognised as the best available and seems never to have gone out of the fashion in Europe. Japanese lacquer furniture was dismantled and incorporated in European furniture as tastes changed. This important feature in the history of European furniture is discussed at length and illustrated by many examples. Over 650 illustrations provide a unique survey of lacquer in private and public collections worldwide, including the important documented collections in Italy, France, England, German, the Netherlands, in Denmark, Sweden, and the USA.