These precious documents retrace an epoch when taste, extravagance and a sense of fantasy were an essential part of the way in which parks and gardens were embellished, by perfectly inscribing them in nature, then furnishing them with dreams. The continuing research of these two great artists enchants me as much as the perfection of their precious drawings.
—Hubert de Givenchy, from his preface to Chinoiseries
Chinoiseries is a tour-de-force of the printers’ and binders’ art, a sumptuous hand-crafted artist’s book today found in the Getty Center’s Artist’s Books Collection and the rare books room of Princeton University’s Firestone Library.
This bespoke volume presents fifty exacting watercolors of Chinoiserie garden follies, printed with superb fidelity using exceptional printing technology upon a heavyweight, uncoated rag paper fashioned especially for this volume by a Scottish paper mill. The book is covered in raw silk and assembled and bound entirely by hand by French and Italian craftsmen.
The work is prefaced by Hubert de Givenchy and features an illustrated introductory essay exploring the development of the Chinoiserie style, “The Architecture of Joy.” Fifty color plates follow, prefaced by short historical essays recounting the history of each structure.
- Connaissance et Mémoires, 2005. 260 pages, format 10 x 13 in., with fifty full-page color illustrations, superbly reproduced using state-of-the-art printing techniques on Curtis 280 g. vellum paper, with 170 g. paper for texts. Hand-assembled and bound in the Chinese fashion with silk-covered boards and slipcased.
Limited English-language stocks remain; the French edition is no longer available.
Please note: All our limited-edition books are shipped fully insured with tracking number.
