This color illustrated book takes the reader through the trajectory of styles from the Wei through the Tang Dynasties and uses the Harvard Winthrop Collection and our own as examples. The individual Chapters provide a background and context for the development of these elegant pieces.
Two critics/statements:
"This is an expensive book as it is privately published. It is well-written by a knowledgeable scholar but he only uses examples from the Winthrop Collection at the Harvard Art Collection. Images of statues from other collections would have improved the scope of the book. In all 28 works are described which in my mind is not a sufficient number to establish his comments on the different styles and periods of Chinese bronzes."
"This little book, written by a collector, shows 28 photographs of works in the Harvard Art Museums and in the author's private collection. The gilt bronzes are concentrated on the period from Northern Wei to the Liao Dynasty and show, in my opinion, much more beauty than the later and ritualistic stereotyped Tibetan bronzes. The author sets a high scholarly standard in his book, gives a clear overview of every dynasty, explains in appendix A 'Selected Buddhas and Bodhisattvas', gives in appendix B a 'Selected Iconography, in appendix C 'Selected Mudras', in appendix D 'Selected Poses', in appendix E 'Selected Thrones', in appendix F 'Selected Accompanying Figures', in appendix G 'Casting Techniques'. Truly the book of a sophisticated and discerning collector."
