lamdha books -
Catalogue of books on Oriental gardens, styles and techniques

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30835 Conder, Josiah Landscape Gardening in Japan Shuyeisha, Japan, 1912. Hardcover, folio, 161pp., 37 monochrome and sepia plates, numerous diagrams (some lightly coloured). Preliminaries foxed, spotted; some spotting throughout; repaired with new spine; gilt illustrations to boards, slightly worn at edges. Very good given age. This is the second edition of Conder's influential treatise on Japanese landscape gardening, which introduced Japanese gardening to the West. The favourable reception accorded to his work on the "Flowers of Japan" encouraged the author to issue another volume on the more comprehensive Art of Landscape Gardening. The present volume is an exposition of the rules and theories of that art, as followed from ancient to modern times, so far as they can be gathered from a thorough study of native authorities, added to personal observation of the best remaining examples. The chapters range from an historical overview of Japanese gardens, through to studies of landscaping components that include garden stones, lanterns, pagodas, water basins, enclosures, wells, bridges, and arbours, with a final trio of chapters covering ornamental water, vegetation, and garden composition. The line drawings are particularly beautiful for their refined subtlety. Click here to order $800

30818 Engel, David H. (Foreword by Richard Neutra) Japanese Gardens for Today Charles E. Tuttle Company, Rutland VT, 1959. Second printing. Quarto; hardcover, full cloth with decorative cloth inserts and decorative endpapers; 270pp., with many monochrome illustrations. Moderate wear; cocked; text block and page edges toned; offset to the preliminaries; a sticker ghost to the flyleaf. Price-clipped dustwrapper rubbed with some creasing; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. "Japanese Gardens for Today is a memento against shallow and fast change. Leaving aside the matter of ritual symbolism, I have always felt the Japanese garden to be a design in time as well as in space. In it, the eternity of shape is kept before our soul by many laborious but rewarding hours of inconspicuous maintenance. In its volumes and in its space relations a twelfth-century garden looks today just as it did hundreds of years ago, although it is composed, not of mummies and relics, but largely of living plants. This is a time cult; it points to the significance time has to life... Japanese towns, villages, houses, and gardens are often miracles of land economy, brought about both out of necessity and from a general sense of thrift. This book gives much more than a glimpse of 'humanized naturalism' of the Japanese landscape, a landscape that proves that even a tightly massed civilization need not spell the defilement of the natural scene but, in fact, can mean its glorification." - Richard Neutra. Click here to order $50

204754 Goto, Seiko The Japanese Garden Gateway to the Human Spirit Peter Laing Publishing Inc., New York NY, 2003. Octavo; paperback; 209pp., with maps diagrams and many monochrome illustrations. Remainder. New. Click here to order $15

210128 Keswick, Maggie (with Charles Jencks) The Chinese Garden History, Art & Architecture Academy Editions, London, 1978. Quarto; hardcover, full cloth with gilt spine titles; 216pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; text block edges toned and lightly spotted; offset to the preliminaries. Dustwrapper is lightly rubbed and edgeworn; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. A classic of the subject, in a scholarly and accessible way, this work traces the Chinese garden back through the earliest records, and explains its influence on, and how it was influenced by, philosophy, painting, architecture and literature. An exploration of Chinese culture, and how this culture manifested itself in the art of garden-making and design, "The Chinese Garden" provides unique insights into a great civilization and an intimate glimpse of the lives of the artists, scholars, poets and emperors who made it. Click here to order $45

90248 Masuno, Shunmyo (James Grayson Trulove, ed.) Ten Landscapes Rockport Publishers, Rockport CT, 1999. Small square quarto hardcover; black boards with silver gilt spine titling, black endpapers and black half-title, title, contents, and foreword pages; 103pp., colour illustrations and monochrome plans. Minor wear; tiny scrapes on board corners and faint spotting to upper text block edges. Very good to near fine otherwise in like dustwrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Shunmyo Masuno is the holder of many degrees and awards in horticulture and landscape gardening, both from Japan and across the globe, and is also a Buddhist monk. His landscape designs encompass all the aspects of traditional Japanese and Buddhist gardens and take these essential tropes onto a higher level of aesthetic creativity. The gardens showcased in this volume range from the traditional to the avant-garde, reflecting the deceptive intricacy of minimalist design and the possibilities it can provide. Click here to order $20

30819 Mori, Osamu (Atsuo Tsuroka, trans.) Typical Japanese Gardens Shibata Publishing, Tokyo Japan, 1962. Quarto; hardcover, with silver-gilt spine and board titles; 161pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; spine extremities softened; text block edges toned; retailer's bookplate to the front pastedown. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed and edgeworn; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $35

207539 Morris, Edwin T. The Gardens of China History, Art, and Meanings Charles Scribner's Sons, New York NY, 1983. Quarto; hardcover, quarter-bound in cloth with gilt spine titles and a blind-stamped upper board decoration; 273pp., with a monochrome frontispiece, many illustrations likewise and 8pp. of full-colour plates. Minor wear; date of publication inscribed in ink to the title page. Dustwrapper is a little rubbed; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Less formal than the gardens of Japan - whose designers were greatly influenced by developments on the Chinese mainland - the gardens of China capture the vitality and spontaneity of nature and are an integral part of the people's everyday life. The garden is truly the gateway to the whole of Chinese culture: the place where history, philosophy, art, architecture and horticulture meet. Edwin T Morris, a distinguished scholar who has led tour groups to China, has written an absorbing study of the many aspects of the Chinese garden tradition, as they developed over a period of two thousand years and as they exist today in classic gardens that have been carefully restored. Using a wealth of photographs, scrolls, and woodcuts, the author explores the elements of the garden and their meanings; the uses of rock and water the architectural forms (courtyards, gateways, pagodas, pavilions, and bridges) that define the garden space, and an astonishing variety of plants. Click here to order $32

210127 [Nippon Flower Designers' Association] Japan Flower Design Award 2004 Authorized by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science & Technology Nippon Flower Designers' Association, Tokyo Japan, 2004. Quarto; paperback, with silver-gilt upper board titles; unpaginated, text in Japanese, with many full-colour illustrations. Mild wear; some surface tears to the front cover where the dustwrapper has adhered. Dustwrapper is lightly rubbed and edgeworn. Laid in: the original receipt and a printed translation of the contents. Click here to order $30

43373 Schaarschmidt-Richter, Irmtraud & Osamu Mori (Janet Seligman, trans.) Japanese Gardens William Morrow and Co, New York NY, 1979. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 326pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear; retailer's bookplate to the front pastedown. Price-clipped dustwrapper mildly edgeworn. Near fine in a rubbed plain card slipcase. A visual celebration of Japanese gardens, their rich historical background, their infinitely varied style and composition, their social importance as places of pleasure and meditation and unique visual effects as works of art. The book discusses gardens in terms of function with chapters on the pond-garden or pleasure garden, the garden of contemplation (usually found adjacent to a temple or palace intended to be admired from afar), and the tea-garden into which the elements of both the pond-garden and dry landscape garden are introduced. From many perspectives the book aims to show how the Japanese garden developed as a work of art and how it appears to the spectator, guiding the reader to an understanding of how one garden differs from another. The book concludes with an essay by Professor Osamu Mori, one of the foremost students of the history of the Japanese garden and a noted landscape artist himself, who gives a thorough account of the history of gardens and ongoing excavations and restorations. Click here to order $100

85104 Takama, Shinji (illus.) Bamboo of Japan Splendour in Four Seasons Graphic-sha Publishing, Tokyo, 1986. Square quarto softcover; 96pp., colour illustrations. Inscription to owner. Minor wear; lightly spotted cover spine with a few random spots on front; mild scuffing to dustwrapper with minimal wear to edges. Very good to near fine otherwise. Gathers photographs of bamboo forests and groves, bamboo shoots, leaves, blossoms, and roots, and gardens, mountains, and wildflowers. Click here to order $18

202733 Valder, Peter The Garden Plants of China - signed copy Florilegium, Glebe NSW, 1999. Quarto; hardcover, with upper board titles; 400pp., with many full-colour illustrations. Mild wear; slightly rolled; softening to the spine extremities; some minor marks to the rear free endpaper; signed by the author in ink to the half-title page. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Valder gives us a window on a sophisticated garden aesthetic very different from Europe's, and an encyclopedia of more than 4000 Chinese garden plants. Combining vast research as well as information and photographs from his many trips to China, he presents a comprehensive volume on ornamental plants in the gardens of China. This splendid book is an important addition to the otherwise scanty and scattered literature in English on China's contribution to the garden splendour of the West and should be added to every library's horticultural section. Click here to order $75

88688 Warren, William (photos. Luca Invernizzi Tettoni) Balinese Gardens Periplus Editions, Singapore, 1995. Large quarto hardcover; green papered boards with gilt spine titling, dark green endpapers; 190pp., colour illustrations. Slight fading to spine edges front and rear of dustwrapper. Otherwise near fine in like dustwrapper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Balinese Gardens captures the lush volcanic landscapes and gardens of this magical isle; gardens which are further enhanced by traditional ornamental sculpture, tranquil ponds fountains and sacred springs. The author investigates the effects of these landscapes on notable visitors to these gardens and at the same time provides an overview of the island's geography and plant life, with some interesting insights into the role of nature in Balinese culture. Traditional gardens found in Bali's villages, temples and palaces are also recorded. Click here to order $45

207541 Whiten, Faith & Geoff Chinese Garden Style Unwin Hyman Ltd., London, 1988. Quarto; hardcover, with gilt spine titles; 127pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Minor wear. Dustwrapper mildly rubbed; now backed by archival-quality white paper and professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $25

207758 Yoshimura, Yuji & Giovanna M. Halford The Japanese Art of Miniature Trees and Landscapes Their Creation, Care, and Enjoyment Charles E. Tuttle Co. Publishers, Rutland VT, 1961. Royal octavo; hardcover, quarter-bound in full cloth with gilt spine and upper board titles and decorations and decorative endpapers; 220pp., with many full-colour and monochrome illustrations. Mild wear; minor offset to the preliminaries. Dustwrapper lightly rubbed; now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. Very good. Click here to order $45

81319 Yun, Qian Classical Chinese Gardens Joint Publishing Company and China Building Industry Press, Hong Kong, 1982. Quarto hardcover; white silk boards with blind stamped upper board decoration and red spine titling, lilac and grey illustrated endpapers; 240pp., colour illustrations and monochrome diagrams with square octavo stapled booklet on Chinese gardens, monochrome illustrations, laid in. Owner's name. Boards with light foxing especially along edges; scattered spotting on half-title page. Red illustrated dustwrapper slightly faded along spine and edges; minimal scuffing and edgewear. Very good with wrapper now professionally protected by superior non-adhesive polypropylene film. The origin of traditional Chinese gardens can be traced back to the Qin and Han dynasties - ie. around 221BC to 220AD. By the Tang dynasty - 618-907 - the art had matured, embracing a history of over two thousand years. During this long period of gestation, there has been continuous development in skills and techniques, as well as enrichment in levels of meaning. Noted as one of the most skilful and clever of man-made environments, the Chinese garden specializes in free form, continuous flow with unexpected twists and turns. Drawing from the aesthetics of architecture, painting, literature, theatre, calligraphy and sculpture the gardens strive for a final synthesizing perfection to create an environment of poetry, the compositional form of painting. This book introduces the reader to 37 Chinese gardens including those representing Imperial gardens, private gardens, natural scenic gardens and those of temples. Photographic illustrations with both panoramic and close-up views, plans and texts by various experts in the field. Click here to order $40