by Karlbeck, Orvar.
[Stockholm], n.d.. 2 vols. Text: 21, (3)pp. 5 tipped-in original photographs as figs. Plates: 36 mounted original photographs, reproducing 78 numbered objects. Text: Tall 4to. Wraps., backed in cloth. Plates: 4to. Stiff heavy wraps. gilt (rear cover and blank margin of last plate unobtrusively repaired). A report, in mimeograph typescript and mounted photographs, of Karlbecks collecting activities in China in 1928-1929, with a detailed inventory of 823 antiquities, listing their place of purchase, price paid, and current value in Europe. These include numerous bronzes of the Shang, Han, Tang and other dynasties (ritual vessels, mirrors, buckles, weapons, and decorative objects of various kinds), as well as sculptures in pottery and stone. Trained as an engineer, Karlbeck (1879-1967) first traveled to China for professional projects in 1906, initially with a concrete manufacturing company, and then with the Tientsin-Pukow Railway Company, which, in the course of structural excavations for a new line between Beijing and Shanghai, was regularly uncovering ancient tombs. Karlbecks first collection of ancient Chinese artifacts was built from these accidental finds, and from purchases made from Chinese dealers. After a brief trip back to Sweden in 1927, Karlbeck returned in 1928 as a collecting agent for the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. This expedition was financed by the Museums China Committee, under the direction of Crown Prince Gustav Adolph of Sweden. Karlbeck led three more collecting expeditions between 1930 and 1934 on behalf of the Karlbeck Syndicate, an international consortium of seventeen museums and collectors that included George Eumorfopoulos, the Berlin State Museum, the Museum for Asiatic Art in Amsterdam, the British Museum and others. Rare: OCLC records one copy (of the plate volume only), at the Smithsonian.
(Inventory #: B186815-1)
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