Album of Japanese Color Woodblock Designs and Illustrations

String. Card thickness boards. . Good. N.d., circa mid-19th century. 4to. 25.5 by 18.5 cm. 15 leaves (with content), containing a total of 24 color plates. One page of Japanese text, and short captions in Japanese along side each plate. The graphics are consistently bold, varied though they are. Sometimes its from the metallic color, other times, the unusualness of the more abstract patterns, or the tweaking of perspective. The images range from figurative to abstract, with many have aspects of both, or falling somewhere in the middle on the spectrum. Subject matter takes in animals, flowers, waves, people, dragons, fan. With the immense range, it would be a daunting endeavor to capture all the imagery with any kind of economy of words. For us, a highlight is the semi-abstract elephant which the eye may alternatively see as a loosely realized landscape, or another with a winding away of five-sided letter chips which vanish in the distance. But really, it is the cumulative power of the image that impresses the most. Condition: heavy wear to the card stock binding. Moderate age toning to the leaves within. The few tissue guards are creased. Unknown whether originally other tissue guards within.