Chen, J.D. [陳仁濤] [Chen Rentao]

NOTES AND COMMENTS ON THE PAINTINGS OF KING KWEI COLLECTION [金匱藏畫評釋] [Three Volumes, Complete] [Inscribed]

Hong Kong [香港]: Pacific Book Co. / Tung Nam Bookstore [太平洋圖書公司 / 東南圖書館], 1956. First Edition.

Seven-hole Chinese stitched binding, 26cm x 19cm, Three Volumes in a folding cloth case. In Very Good minus condition with a Good minus case. Case is navy blue with gilt titling to front and right side, and bone toggles on left side. Volumes are stitch-bound in blue paper with silk cloth corner wraps (baojiao), and paper labels to front covers with black ink titling and decorative gold flecks. Case exterior has heavy toning to right face and chipping to the gilt titling there, moderate toning to left face, shelfwear/rubbing wear to edges, creasing to toggle straps, and light toning, scattered chipping to fabric, and scuffing throughout. Case interior has adhesive toning and age-toning to pastedowns, an eraser mark to corner of front pastedown’s inner flap, white staining to tail of right inner wall, and rubbing, light toning, and scattered chipping to fabric throughout. Volume spines have light-to-moderate foxing, age-toning to white paper, slight peeling to edges of covers, and rubbing to silk corner wraps; Jin Kui Lun Hua A has a chip to lower corner wrap silk; Jin Kui Lun Hua B has light dust soiling to corner wraps. Covers have creasing to corners, wear to edges, and scattered chipping to paper, rubbing, and scuffing throughout; Jin Kui Cang Hua Ping Shi has a closed tear to upper right corner of front cover; Jin Kui Lun Hua B has “800” in faint pencil near top edge of rear cover. Text blocks have double leaves; have stress marks to corners, and age-toning, light foxing, and light scuffing throughout; Jin Kui Cang Hua Ping Shi has “900” in pencil to rear pastedown; Jin Kui Lun Hua A has a gift inscription to front flyleaf, two open tears to inner margin of front flyleaf, author’s seal in vermillion ink to preface page, toning to upper margins of plate section table of contents leaf, contemporary new distributor’s information pasted over the original distributor’s information on colophon, and an errata sheet pasted to rear pastedown. Inscription reads: “Tom Lawton / from / Larry Sickman / 3 Aug, 1967 / Kansas City”. Jin Kui Lun Hua B has “800” in pencil to rear pastedown and a gift inscription by author to front flyleaf: “東烟謙三先生惠存 / 陳仁濤敬贈” [To Mr. Higashihata Kenzō, please kindly accept this copy. Respectfully presented by Chen Rentao]. Text in Traditional Chinese.

CONTENTS: Vol. 1 “Jin Kui Cang Hua Ping Shi” ([4], 8, 112 pages)—Vol. 2 “Jin Kui Lun Hua” A (2, 2, 2, 80, [1] pages plus five regular plates and one 210cm-long fold-out plate)—Vol. 3 “Jin Kui Lun Hua” B (2, 2, 80, [1] pages).

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1418071

Special Collections

Price: $3,000

NOTES

This three-book set details paintings from the private collection of a mid-century Hong Kong collector of Chinese art named Chen Rentao/Chen Jen Dao 陳仁濤 (rendered as “J.D. Chen” in the set,) who used the studio name “King Kwei” (金匱) for his collection. 

The first volume, 金匱藏畫評釋 (Jin kui cang hua ping shi), shares a name with the set as a whole. In its two-page preface, Chen writes that he began the project while on a seaside retreat two years prior, but due to a lack of access to reference materials while away, he still hadn’t been able to conclude a final draft that met his expectations. He adds that while exhibiting a portion of his collection at Hong Kong’s first art festival at Fung Ping Shan library earlier that year, multiple people approached him about releasing the commentary work he was doing on his collection. He relented and quickly edited together an abridged version with a few selected plates (this book set), with a final version in a larger form factor to follow later (what would become the widely-reprinted two-volume set with the full range of plates, commonly used in provenance research of significant art that passed through his collection).

The second and third volumes have the same names, 金匱論畫 （jin kui lun hua), and same body text, but different-colored paper labels, different inscriptions, and the volume we’ve called JKLH-A has an additional section of plates of selected paintings bound in front of the main work, with an errata sheet pasted in the rear. Their texts’ contents are written descriptions of paintings in the collection and they have a different preface from the first, or commentary, volume. Chen explains that the contents are his rough manuscript of notes from studying the paintings for five years, and consequently the length of the notes for each entry are “unbalanced.” Due to the torrent of requests for his notes, he’s decided to print them to save his friends the labor of making handwritten copies. This preface is dated October, 1955.

JKLH-A has a gift inscription to Thomas “Tom” Lawton (1931-2023) from Laurence “Larry” Sickman (1906-1988). Lawton was an eminent Chinese art scholar and served as director of the Freer and Sackler Galleries. Sickman served as Director of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City, Missouri, from 1953 to 1977, after serving as its Curator of Oriental Art from 1935. He lived in Beijing from 1930 to 1935 and worked as a purchasing agent, acquiring many of the foundational Chinese works for the Nelson-Atkins.

JKLH-B has a gift inscription from the author, J.D. Chen, to an unknown Japanese person. The definitive two-volume set would be published in Japan, so perhaps this person was someone the author knew through his connections to art or publishing in that country.