Description
CHINA COLONIAL – PHOTO ALBUM – WOOD & IVORY
This is without a doubt THE most magnificent photo album we have ever offered. It measures
The album is empty and contains no photos.
From what I can tell, it was never used. A total of nine double-sided pages yields eighteen individual pages on which photos and/or postcards can be mounted in a variety of cutouts. Three different-sized cutouts accommodate images of varying sizes. The cutouts measure 5 3/16″ x 3 5/8,” 5 3/16″ x 3 11/16,” and 3″ x 2.” Below each of the cutouts is a small window in which to insert a caption. What is more, each page’s background is hand painted on silk! While some scenes are repeated, a great variation exists, even among same-sized pages of cutouts. In addition, the front cover liner and back page are also hand painted silk. I cannot even comprehend how much time was required for the front and back covers’ artwork, let alone the interior’s eighteen pages.
As intricate and beautiful as is the interior’s artwork, the album’s exterior front cover is even more amazing. The front and back cover’s is made of black lacquered wood. The front cover boasts a hand painted framing design that encloses within it a Chinese man and woman in ornate Chinese gowns, and a dragon. Each character is hand carved in high-relief ivory. At various strategic places it is highlighted with mother-of-pearl. The album’s back cover is unadorned, but has suffered a horizontal crack.Although we will show very detailed photos of every aspect of the silk hand painted artwork, as well as the front cover’s ivory and mother-of-pearl, they simply do not render full justice to the album’s sheer beauty. If you are a collector of Colonial photos or postcards, this would be the ultimate way to display them. If you appreciate early 20th Century Chinese Art, then the album will be your collection’s highlight.
