[10] typed sheets, printed on both sides. Stapled at head, horizontal median fold. Los Angeles: ca. 1985.

Newsletter published to highlight books on photography. Fine. More

Four vols. 8vo, orig. printed title labels on upper covers, orig. stitching. Shanghai: Yi xue shu ju [Shanghai Medical Press], 1923.

In the final years of the Qing dynasty and the beginning of the Republic of China, Chinese Buddhism experienced a revival. The bibliophilic founder of the Shanghai Medical Press, Fubao Ding (1874-1952), was active in this movement, publishing his “groundbreaking” (Scott) Ding’s Buddhist Studies Collectanea [Dingshi Foxue congshu] from 1918 to 1923, numbering about 30 titles. Many of the texts were based on Ding’s own large collection of rare books (about 150,000 volumes), reprinting ancient Buddhist texts with his own... More

14 juan in four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. Jianling: Tian shi ding chu shi; Beijing: Wen kai zhai juan, 1924.

First edition of this study on quotations from Xu Shen’s (d. ca. 149) Shuowen jiezi [Explain the Graphs to Unravel the Written Words] Found in Yiqie jing yinyi [Sounds & Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures], the first dictionary of Chinese characters. We learn from Tian’s Preface that Sounds & Meanings refers to two different editions of this work: one is the edition by Xuanying (fl. 7th cent.), which is also known as Da Tang zhongjing yinyi [Sounds & Meanings... More

2 p.l., 217, [2] folding leaves. Seven juan in one vol. 8vo, orig. printed wrappers, orig. stitching. Shanghai & Beijing: Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, 1931.

First edition of “the major modern study” (W. South Coblin) of the classic Buddhist phonological work Yiqiejing yinyi [Sounds & Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures] of Huilin (737-820). He was “a monk of Xi Ming Temple in Chang’an (today’s Xi’an, Shanxi Province)…He had a profound knowledge of Indian philology and exegetic studies. It is recorded that he started to write Sounds and Meanings of All the Buddhist Scriptures in 788 and finished it in 810…It... More

Several color illus. 63 pp. Small 4to (223 x 169 mm.), pictorial boards, title on spine, pictorial endpapers. Cologne: Kölnischer Kunstverein & Japanisches Kulturinstitut, 1997.

Scarce catalogue for an exhibition jointly organized by the Kölnischer Kunstverein Japanisches Kulturinstitut in Cologne (26 August-8 October 1995). It was published two years after the exhibition took place.

The catalogue contains installation views, a diagram of the exhibition space, and lists of the rotating display of On Kawara’s Date Paintings. Each week the paintings were rotated with new ones. On the facing wall copies of the newspapers which the artist used to construct the boxes for these paintings were... More

16 juan in four vols. 8vo, cont. blue wrappers, orig. stitching. Shouyang: Qi shi, 1867.

First edition of one of the best histories of the Mongols to appear in the 19th century. This is the best known work of Zhang (1805-49), scholar and historian, who devoted most of his life to the study of northwestern frontier geography and Mongolian history. Our book, left incomplete upon the author’s early death, was completed and edited by his friend Qiutao He (1824-62).

“The first six fascicles of the book describe the tribes in Inner Mongolia…, the last ten that of Outer Mongolia…and the Dzunghars…The... More

Five full-page woodcut illustrations in the text. 77; 76 folding leaves. Two vols. Large 8vo, orig. blue wrappers, orig. stitching. Chengdu: Jinling da xue [Jinling University Chinese Culture Research Institute], 1939.

First edition. Shang (1902-91), archeologist, epigraphist, and calligrapher, was one of the greatest Chinese archeologists of the 20th century. He was an authority on oracle bones and published widely on the subject. He was also well-versed in the tomb culture of the Central Plains and participated in an excavation of a large Han Dynasty tomb in Changsha (Hunan).

The present work, on the archeological excavations of tombs in Changsha, is considered a pioneering work. More

16 juan in six vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, stitched as issued. [Shanghai]: from the pillar: “Guo xue fu lun she,” n.d. [but ca. 1912-30].

Mo (1811-71), was a bibliographer, bibliophile, poet, and calligrapher. His affiliation with the publishing house Jinling Shuju (later Jiangnan Shuju) caused him to travel widely in southeast China, where he visited many libraries and collectors and did much bibliographical research.

He wrote three notable bibliographies: the present work is a classified list of the books Mo saw during his travels, with notes on the authors, contents, and editions. The first edition was published in Beijing in... More

74 leaves (including one folding leaf). 8vo, orig. printed wrappers, orig. stitching. Beijing: Hafo Yanjing xue she [Harvard Yenching University Library], January 1934.

First edition, Supplement No. 8 of the famous Harvard-Yenching Institute Sinological Index Series. “In Yenching University Library was found a manuscript, in eight fascicles, of a reference compilation of biographical notices of about eleven hundred painters under the Ch’ing dynasty. Internal evidence seemed to indicate that the unknown compiler worked during 1787-1795 by culling eight other compilations. Three of these do not appear in the usual bibliographies, and many of the painters they mentioned do not appear in subsequent... More

20 juan in four vols. 8vo, orig. wrappers, orig. stitching. [China]: n.d. but 1893-1934.

A scholarly edition of this imperially authorized examination of the origins of the Manchus; it is a major work of court historiography produced under the Qianlong emperor.

This work, completed in 1783, “aimed to establish a grand narrative of Manchu history linking the founders of the Manchu Qing dynasty to those of the Jurchen Jin centuries before, both in terms of ancestry as well as in terms of shared geographical origins in the Changbai Mountains…By grounding the Manchus firmly in Chinese antiquity and by framing the... More

Black & white illus. throughout. 121 pp. 8vo (210 x 150 mm.), orange softcover, perfect-bound. Paris: Yvon Lambert, 1979.

The first issue of Yvon Lambert’s short-lived journal, Mot pour Mot. A pioneering Parisian gallerist, Lambert was one of the first European dealers to exhibit American Minimalist and conceptual artists such as LeWitt, Kawara, Robert Barry, Agnes Martin, Andre, Ryman, etc. This inaugural issue was entirely devoted to the works of On Kawara. It is a fascinating early survey of the artist’s practice, with several essays translated from Japanese and French. The illustrations and facsimiles show Kawara’s studio and pieces from his I am still alive... More

Many black & white text illus. throughout. 4to (267 x 205 mm.), orig. pictorial wrappers, staple-bound, with stamp & postmarked. [Toronto: Spring 1977].

One of the rarest Art Metropole catalogues, this is a landmark catalogue because of its extensive offerings from North American and international artists. Established by the collective General Idea (AA Bronson, Felix Partz & Jorge Zontal) in 1974, Art Metropole was the first large-scale distributor of artists’ books and publications in North America — two years before Printed Matter opened. This copy is addressed to the LACMA librarian Eleanor Hartman, and in personal correspondence with AA Bronson (who called the bookstore a.... More