[WALTERS COLLECTION] BUSHELL, S.W. Oriental Ceramic Art, illustrated by Examples from the Collection of W.T. Walters. New York: Appleton, 1897.

10 volumes. 2o. Engraved portrait frontispiece and 116 chromolithographed plates by Stang and reproductions in text. Original yellow quarter cloth and pictorial boards.

FIRST EDITION, limited issue one of 500 sets. The books record ceramics from the collection of William Thompson Walters (1820-1894) who was a celebrated devotee of art. William Walters was appointed Art Commissioner from the United States to the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1867 and 1878, and to the Vienna Exposition in 1873. The text is written by Stephen Wootton Bushell (1844-1908), a physician to the British legislation in Beijing whose writings made him one of the most important foreigners in promoting the understanding of Chinese ceramics in the Victorian period. In 1883, he was appointed by the Victoria and Albert Museum to buy Chinese ceramics, and in total Bushell purchased 240 pieces for the museum. It is unknown how many sets were printed. As with the limited editions of privately published books on jades by Heber Bishop, dated 1906, the majority of Oriental Ceramic Art books were presumably given to major institutions, heads of state, and friends of the collector.

Each volume 22 1/2 x 17 in., 57 x 43 cm.

This lot is located in Chicago.