Mr. Gladstone's Washi. A Survey of Reports on the Manufacture of Paper in Japan. The Parkes Report of 1871

Three folding plates, full-page color reproductions of 20 Japanese watercolors depicting papermaking, facsimiles on Japanese paper of 30 woodcut illus., & a separate suite of color plates in a portfolio. Large 8vo, orig. red morocco-backed boards, gilt, morocco spine label, slipcase. Newtown: Bird & Bull Press, 1984.

Limited to 500 numbered copies printed on mouldmade Hahnemühle paper in Van Dijck types. In the late 1860s, at the behest of Prime Minister Gladstone, Sir Harry Parkes traveled to Japan to assemble information on the art of Japanese papermaking. His report, together with a vast collection of handmade Japanese paper, was shipped to England in 1871 and subsequently forgotten until its rediscovery by Hans Schmoller in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The entire text of the Parkes Report is here reproduced in facsimile, supplemented by Schmoller’s account of his discovery, a biographical sketch of Parkes, and a historical survey of the impact of Japanese paper on the West.

Fine copy of a fascinating narrative of bibliographical detection.