Handbook of the Robert Woods Bliss Collection of Pre-Columbian Ar t. by Dumbarton Oaks - 1963

Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, DC, January 1963. Trade Paperback. Used - very good.

2 parts: xiv+78 pages with 426 plates; 8 unpaginated pages and 13 plates. Royal octavo (9 14" x 6 1/8") issued in wrappers with black and gilt lettering. First edition.Robert Woods Bliss was the earliest of the serious collectors of Pre-Columbian art. In 1945, he wrote to the secretary of his Harvard class:About forty years ago [closer to thirty years, in fact] I became interested in the sculpture and artifacts in general of the various pre-Columbian cultures of Mexico, Central America, and the west coast of South America. At that time few, if any of our art museums had on display these objects, which were only made available to the public in museums of natural history as part of their archaeological finds. To me, many of the pieces I saw had artistic significance and also revealed remarkable craftsmanship. So I began to collect, buying only pieces which appealed to me as objects of art . . . I began to try to impress upon others the importance of the history of art, of the stylized and powerful… Read More

Washington, DC: Dumbarton Oaks, , 1963. 1st Edition . Paperback. Good/No Jacket. 1963. 78pp plus 3 maps and 102 plates. Supplement not included. Soft cover in protective sleeve. Grey card boards with some gilt lettering in near fine condition. Inside near fine with a slight yellowing to edges of pages. A lovely copy.