Scarce and historically important set documenting the art and architecture of China, including hundreds of photographic plates from the author's personal archive.

Scarce and historically important set documenting the art and architecture of China, including hundreds of photographic plates from the author's personal archive.

Osvald Sirén (1879-1966) was a pre-eminent sinologist and art historian of his generation. After completing a thesis on the European Renaissance, Sirén was drawn to oriental art through a personal interest in Theosophy. So began a life-long interest, of which Histoire des Arts Anciens de la Chine is a crowning achievement. Sirén was appointed professor at Stockholm University, although he lectured little and preferred to communicated through published works. Furthermore, like many art historians of the era, he advised private collectors and acquired artworks of significance during his travels in China.

Sirén visited China several times between the wars, travelling widely and documenting remote and inaccessible sites. The present work reproduces many of the author's photographs, and as such forms a unique visual archive of Chinese art and architecture (sadly some of the sites documented in this series – including remote shrines and Buddhist wall paintings – did not survive the ravages of the cultural revolution).

The set comprises the following, uniformly published under the auspices of the Musée Guimet:

I. La period préhistorique l'époque Tcheou l'époque tch'ou at Ts'in (1929)

II. L'époque Han et les six dynasties (1929)

III. La sculpture de l'époque Han a l'époque Ming (1930)

IV. L'architecture (1930)