Jieziyuan Huazhuan

1800. GAI, Wang and Li Yu. Jieziyuan Huazhuan. (Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting). First Series: Five volumes; and Second Series: Four volumes. Profusely iIllustrated with black and white and colour woodblock prints. Large 8vo, bound in later wrappers in two chitsu cases. Suzhou: 1800. The Mustard Seed Garden Manual, sometimes known as Jieziyuan Huapu is a manual of Chinese painting compiled during the early Ch'ing Dynasty and first printed in one volume in 1679 with a second group of volumesprinted in 1701, followed by a second edition in 1782 with newly cut blocks, and a third edition in 1800. The work was commissioned by Shen Xinyou, son-in-law of the famous playwright Li Yu, whose mansion in Jinling was known as Jieziyuan, or Mustard Seed Garden. Shen possessed the teaching materials of Li Liufang , a painter of the late Ming dynasty, and commissioned Wang Gai to edit and expand those materials with the aim of producing a manual for landscape painting. The result was the first part of Jieziyuan Huazhuan, which, first published in 1679 in five colours, comprises five juan or fascicles. Li Yu, as the publisher, wrote a preface for this part. In the first series, the first fascicle deals with the general principles of landscape painting, the second the painting of trees, the third that of hills and stones, the fourth that of people and houses, and the fifth comprises the selected works of great landscape painters. In the second series, the first fascicle deals is the book of Orchids, the second of bamboo, the third of plums and the fourth of chrysanthemums. Occasional internal staining and title-page with damaged margins protected by tissue. Nevertheless a sound copy of an early edition of this rare and important work. From the library of legendary art dealer C.T.Loo.