Chinese Silk: A Cultural History

by Shelagh J. Vainker

An illustrated survey of the production and significance of silk in China from prehistory to the present day. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0813534461
• ISBN13: 9780813534466
• Release Date: April 2004
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 3.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 10.6" x 10.3"

Customer Reviews

An impressive and seminal work of outstanding scholarship

Chinese Silk: A Cultural History by Shelagh Vainker (Assistant Keeper of Eastern Art, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, England) is a detailed history of silk in China ranging from its Neolithic origins down to the twentieth century. Relating the use of Chinese silk to other decorative arts, and drawing extensively from archaeology, paintings, poems, and other texts, Vainker traces the role of silk in Chinese history, trade, religion, and literature. Chinese Silk is an impressive and seminal work of outstanding scholarship, would make a superb choice as a community library Memorial Fund acquisition, as well as an essential, core addition to academic library Cultural History collections.