Ceiling Designs from the Dunhuang Caves (Gansu Province, China)

China, 1930. Hardcover. Near Fine. A bound portfolio of 20 remarkable silkscreened plates of ceiling designs from the Dunhuang Caves in Gansu Province, China. Also known as "The Mogao Caves" (or the "Thousand Buddha Grottoes"), these sacred caves are essentially shrines of Buddhist art temples and form a system of 492 temples southeast of the center of Dunhuang, which is "an oasis strategically located at a religious and cultural crossroads on the Silk Road, in Gansu Province". The portfolio has held up very nicely: clean and tight and Near Fine in its ribbon-tied, decorative boards. And all 20 plates are in pristine condition, with no wear or markings of any kind. The text in Chinese, the lavish plates along each verso.