Eastern, Far Eastern

Festivals and Ceremonies observed by the Royal Family of Kotah

43 pages, hardback, 21 x 23 cm, 167 illustrations
PRICE: £10.00
ISBN: 978 3 907070 98 7

Customers in the US or Canada, CLICK HERE

By Horst Metzger and Maharao Brijrai Singh of Kotah

Under the patronage and with the participation of the ruler, festivals and ceremonies used to be lavishly celebrated in the former princely states of Rajasthan. Nowadays only a few Maharajas and Maharais take interest in rituals and can afford the time and expense. The royal family of Kotah, headed by H.H. Maharao Brijraj Singh, is an exception.

This unique book is a compilation of the rituals and ceremonies observed by the royal family of Kotah. It is intended to benefit not only future generations of the Kotah family, but also those wanting to catch a glimpse behind the scenes otherwise hidden from the observer.

Manuscripts from the Himalayas and Indian Subcontinent

Oriental manuscripts were produced literally in hundreds of languages and scripts, on a wide range of materials. These range from modest palm-leaf books to grand volumes published on paper produced for the Mughal Emperors. Among the many items included in this catalogue is a complete Tibetan scroll of the early 8th century from the Dun Huang, a Devimahatmya of the eleventh century, perhaps the oldest copy of this celebrated text to survive... More

Odd Men Out: Unique Works of Art by Individualist Japanese Artists

This book explores the surprising heights of the idiosyncratic lone Japanese artist, the odd man out, experimenting his way through the fine arts and laying his own pathway forwards as he did. It is intended as a joyous celebration of his genius. Dating from the late 17th to the early 20th century, 69 special and individual works of painting, sculpture, ceramic, lacquer, fancy metalwork and a striking selection of pipecases and their sagemono, inro and netsuke in various materials, are catalogued with beautiful photography and detailed descriptions. More

Workshop and Patron in Mughal India

‘Abd al-Rahim, the commander-in-chief of the mughal armies and a great bibliophile, was the most important patron of Mughal painting outside the imperial family. John Seyller presents the seven illustrated manuscripts commissioned by this eminent noble and places them in the context of imperial Mughal painting and patronage at the beginning of the 17th century. This book provides a nuanced picture of the interaction among artists in a series of collaborative projects and an original and thoughtful analysis of patronage in Mughal India. More

The Literati Mode: Chinese Scholar Paintings, Calligraphy and Desk Objects

The third and last in the series of catalogues and exhibitions on the endlessly diverse subject of artworks which reflect the culture of the Chinese scholar class and some of the individuals who comprised it. It follows on the heels of Documentary Chinese Works of Art in Scholars' Taste and Emperor Scholar Artisan Monk. Over 160 fine examples of painting, calligraphy and desk or scholastic objects, dating from the 15th to the 20th century, are presented with colour photographs and detailed, educative entries. More

Scrolling Images: Chinese Painting and Calligraphy in Handscroll Format

The main attraction of the handscroll for the artist is that it is virtually infinite in terms of the development of an idea, or series of ideas. Whether painting a landscape or writing drunken poetry, you go on until you reach a logical conclusion, then you stop. For this reason, most of the finest Chinese artists produced their most important works as handscrolls. More

The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context

This study examines the hundreds of secular and religious buildings, urban residential and commercial foundations, and public monuments commissioned in Lucknow and Oudh between 1722 and 1856 by the fabulously rich Nawabs of Oudh and their Court, the English East India Company, and others. More

Eccentrics in Netsuke

There is an excitement to eccentric netsuke, and a dimension of an artistic personality and vision which raises these creations from the level of craft to art. The simple fact is that individual, experimental netsuke are much more difficult to understand than identifiable hack work – even great hack work – and are therefore much more gratifying when one does understand them. More

More Things: In Heaven and Earth

Made from scraps and slivers of wood, ivory, bone, stag-antler and metal, netsuke developed from a simple utilitarian toggle worn at the belt into a fine art. Some of it made geniuses. This book brings together prime examples of these delightful treasures – a rare and perfectly formed horse by Masanao of Kyoto; an extraordinary Ashinaga and Tenaga by Totenko; a fine study of a running boar with a snake upon its back, a masterpiece by Naito Toyomasa. More

Amorous Delight: The Amarushataka Palm-Leaf Manuscript. Illustrated by the Master of Sharanakula in the 19th Century (Orissa, India)

Around 1800, an anonymous engraver in Sharanakula, a small temple place on the southern coast of Orissa, illustrated a palm-leaf anthology of love poems. The one hundred Sanskrit quatrains, which are said to be the work of the 7th-century poet Amaru, describe the behaviour of enamoured couples, their longing for each other, the lovers’ anxieties, their ecstatic joy as well as their doubts and sorrows. More

Meetings With Remarkable Netsuke: 108 Masterpieces Selected from Private Collections

The biggest, the best and theoretically the final volume in Sydney L. Moss gallery's trilogy of superior netsuke publications, regarded by some authorities as the finest offering of select netsuke in living memory. Over 300 colour photographs of consistently excellent works. More

Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings: Illuminated Manuscript from The White Beryl of Sangs-rGyas rgya-mtsho

This extraordinary publication represents a landmark in both Tibetan studies and the art of bookmaking. It presents for the first time two magnificent eighteenth-century manuscripts illuminating in exquisite detail the essential but little-known practices of elemental divination as described in The White Beryl – an important seventeenth-century treatise written by Sangs-rgyas rGya-mtsho (1653–1705), the rekowned polymath who was regent to the Fifth Dalai Lama. More

Between Heaven and Earth: Secular and Divine Figural Images in Chinese Paintings and Objects

The extensively researched, in-depth, full-colour catalogue features a painstaking selection of 19 paintings and 47 'literati-taste' objects. The emphasis of all of them is on the extraordinary range of Chinese figural representation, with its tendency to humanize divine images and idealize secular figures, so that they meet somewhere in the middle as 'informal icons'. More

The Temple of Devi Kothi

According to a 1754 inscription, the ruling Rajah Umed Singh of Chamba commissioned this extraordinarily ornate wooden temple, and two artists, Gurdev and Jhanda, carried out the work. Despite the difficulty of gaining access to the shrine, 2,300 m above sea level, the quality of these highly regarded reliefs is unique – nothing comparable in Chamba managed to withstand the fires and wars at the end of the 18th century. This book thoroughly publicises this important Hindu structure for the first time. More

Nly Fittings: Japanese Sword Furniture from an Old English Collection

This book examines how with the Japanese craftsman's intuitive sense of aesthetics and design the tsuba's utilitarian origins reached into the realms of fine art. The collection paints a picture of the Japanese tsubako, successfully representing both classic and everyday tsuba and fittings, work of the exacting levels demanded by the Daimyo and their samurai. More

Chinese Books

This catalogue discusses and illustrates a wide variety of Chinese books, dating from the sixth to the nineteenth century -- some very rare. More

Eccentric Visions: The Worlds of Luo Ping (1733–1799)

Known today as the youngest of the remarkable "Eight Eccentrics of Yangzhou", Luo Ping was one of the most versatile, original, and celebrated artists in eighteenth-century China. This accompanies an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, of works drawn primarily from leading museums in China, and will include rarely seen masterpieces as well as overlooked or unpublished works to provide a broad spectrum of Luo’s multiple talents and extraordinary pictorial prowess. More

The Art of Southeast Asia: The Collection of the Museum Rietberg

The Museum Rietberg in Zurich possesses an old and important collection of Southeast Asian sculpture, but until now it has never been fully documented and analysed. It includes stone statues from the Cham culture of Vietnam, examples of which can otherwise only be seen in the Cham Museum in Da Nang and the Musée Guimet in Paris; sculptures of the Khmer from Cambodia which are among the earliest artefacts of this culture collected in Europe; and statues from Thailand and Indonesia. More

Old Leaves Turning

Literati painting of the Ming and Ch'ing dynasties was created in, essentially, four forms: hanging scrolls, handscrolls, albums and fans. Many of the leading artists, both calligraphers and painters, set out to produce their most important and extensive works in the almost infinitely expandable linear format of the handscroll. However, it is in the smaller formats that the subtleties of literati brushwork are better appreciated and discerned. Many painters did their best work in the small, intimate formats of fan and album painting. More

Manuscripts of the Silk Road

For more than a thousand years, the paths of the Silk Road joined the distant empires of East Asia and the Mediterranean, forming a complex web of trade, pilgrimage and intellectual exchange between China, Central Asia, Persia, Tibet, India, the Near East and Europe. The manuscripts collected in this book provide a sense of the fruitful exchanges as well as bitter struggles in these regions over the centuries. More

Rajasthani Painters: Bagta and Chokha - Master Artists at Devgarh

After Andrew Topsfield’s recent study Court Painting at Udaipur, which was welcomed by scholars as the definitive research on the Mewar school for long, we are proud to present a monograph on two Devgarh artists that covers the lesser known artistic developments of the history of Mewar painting. This publication focuses on two master-artists, Bagta and his son Chokha, who worked first for the prestigious court of the Maharanas of Udaipur before they became involved with the rawats of Devgarh in the second half of the eighteenth century and nineteenth century respectively. More

The Admiralty Islands: Art from the South Seas

The Admiralty Islands, a group of more than twenty islets with approximately 25,000 inhabitants, lie north of New Guinea in the southwest Pacific. This catalogue delineates the main characteristics of the art of the Admiralty Islands. It presents some 100 objects which rank among the best in the world. More

Japanese Netsuke: Serious Art: Outstanding Works Selected from American Collections

A comprehensive survey of the major schools and masters in 66 fine examples, this catalogue is an indication of the developing serious interest in netsuke. Several full-colour photographs of each work, taken from every useful angle, accompany educative and entertaining text. More

Court Painting at Udaipur: Art under the Patronage of the Maharanas of Mewar

The Maharanas of Mewar in Rajasthan have long been regarded as pre-eminent among the Rajput chiefs of India and as dedicated guardians of social and cultural tradition. The Mewar school of painting, centred first at Chitor and later at Udaipur, was one of the most vigorous and prolific of all Indian court styles. It reveals an unrivalled continuity of development from the 16th century or earlier until as late as the 1940s. More

Emperor Scholar Artisan Monk: The Creative Personality in Chinese Works of Art

The second in the series of catalogues and exhibitions on the endlessly diverse subject of artworks which reflect the culture of the Chinese scholar class and some of the individuals who comprised it. Amongst the works presented here are a group of signed and superb rhinoceros horn carvings; imposing stone desk objects, including unusual and fine examples by metalworker Hu Wen-ming; an interesting group of Chin Hsi-yai bamboo carvings from the carver's own collection; and a group of imperially-related objects centering around the K'and-hsi Emperor's Tour of the South handscroll. More

Such Stuff as Dreams are Made On: Japanese Netsuke from the Willi G. Bosshard Collection

A selection of the finest works from the well-known Willi G. Bosshard collection, the one hundred netsuke are extraordinarily strong in Kyoto school animals, particularly rats and tigers, of which there must surely be enough masterpieces for anyone at all interested. Works by Masanao, Tomotada, Okatomo and virtually every worthwhile follower form a richly varied, comprehensive overview of the period from the mid to late 18th century and of the repertoire of subjects. More

Escape from the Dusty World: Chinese Paintings and Literati Works of Art

Literati material finds its way into parts of the brain which regular works of antiquity cannot reach; the convoluted twists of cunning poetic allusions, themselves referring back and further back, to old writings, inscriptions on stone, legendary heroes and their mottoes, and not infrequent misquotes, can catch the unwary seeker after meaning in their complex web, causing him to lose all sense of afternoons and sometimes days. While one can admire Chinese literati works for their purely visual appeal and intimate, personable presence, it is their literary content that renders them so endlessly individual and subjective of interpretation. More

In Scholars' Taste: Documentary Chinese Works of Art

The purpose of this catalogue is twofold: to bring to the notice of the Western collecting public a random selection of what constitutes a true Chinese connoisseurship in real Chinese art; and to give notice to that same shy public of the directions being taken and interests indulged at the Sydney L. Moss gallery. Apart from painting and calligraphy, included are bamboo carving, I-hsing wares, wood, ivory, bone, rhinoceros horn, jade, soapstone and hardstone carving, textile, lacquer and metal-work, several examples of the seal-carvers' art and a very few ceramic items. More

Paintings by Nainsukh of Guler

Endowed with a sharp eye, a brillant technique, and a refined sense for colours, Nainsukh is one of the most skilled artists of 18th century India. This brochure, meant to delight the eyes and the curiosity of general reader, informs about Nainsukh and his followers and shows thirty of their outstanding paintings which form the core of the Rietberg’s collection of Pahari paintings... More

Before and Beyond the Image: Aniconic Symbolism in Buddhist Art

First published a quarter-century ago in German, Dietrich Seckel’s essay remains a vital contribution to a much-debated feature of Buddhist art, its aniconism, its aversion to depicting spiritual entities of the very highest order. More

Outside the Box: Further Explorations in Japanese Netsuke and Lacquer

Amongst the netsuke in this catalogue are many 18th-century rarities, including several large, mostly anonymous, figures in ivory and wood from Japanese legend, as well as important examples by Tametaka, Koyoken Yoshinaga, Tomotada and Masanao of Kyoto. Amongst masterpieces from the 19th century are four Otoman, two Ikkyu and a Tomokazu group of three rats. There are 17 ojime in various materials, many of them signed; pipecases of rare quality; some unusual spectacle cases; and inro in laquer and metal. The catalogue is rounded off by five extraordinary lacquer boxes by Ritsuo, the others by Koami Choko, Koma Kyuhaku and Oyama. More

Kannon – Divine Compassion: Early Buddhist Art from Japan

Kannon, the Bodhisattva of Compassion, is probably Japan’s most popular Buddhist deity. Images of Kannon – who hears the cries for help of all beings in distress – are the main focus of worship in many Japanese temples. This exhibition catalogue presents an exceptional selection of the most beautiful sculptures and paintings from the 7th to the 14th century, some of which have never been seen before outside Japan or which are rarely accessible even to the Japanese public. More

PHP

Paul Holberton Publishing