JAPANESE PAPERMAKING: PAPERMAKING TRADITIONS, TOOLS, AND TECHNIQUES byTimothy BarrettReview by: Nancy S. AllenArt Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, Vol. 4, No. 3 (Fall1985), p. 133Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Art Libraries Society of NorthAmericaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/27947483 .

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Art Documentation, Fall 1985 133

JAPANESE PAPERMAKING: PAPERMAKING TRADITIONS, TOOLS, AND TECHNIQUES/Timothy Barrett.-New York, Tokyo: Weatherhill, 1984.-317 p.-ISBN 0-8348-0185-X; LC 83-5790: $32.50.

The art of Japanese papermaking is not exactly an undocu mented topic in English. Dard Hunter, one of the book designers of the American Arts and Crafts movement, travelled to the Orient researching handmade papers in the early decades of this century. His book, A Papermaking Pilgrimage to Japan, Korea and China (New York: Pynson Printers, 1936), provided the first full account in English of papermaking and included fifty-one paper specimens. Subsequent books provided cursory descrip tions of the process until the publication of Wash/: The World of Japanese Paper by Sukey Hughes (Kodansha: Tokyo, New York, 1978). Ms. Hughes wrote of the evolution and process of paper

making and included valuable sections on the people who make washi, the importance of paper in the artistic and aesthetic lives of the Japanese, and a description of types of papers. Could another book possibly be useful?

Timothy Barrett set out to "communicate the intricate work

ings of Japanese papermaking" and has described the craft as practiced by professionals in Japan today. As a papermaker him self, Barrett has written with care and great detail on the grow ing, harvesting, and processing of good fiber; the cooking, wash ing, purifying and beating necessary in fiber preparation; and the formation and drying of sheets of paper in Japan. This story is told from first-hand experience as Barrett worked and studied alongside Japanese papermakers for two years. The anecdotal

quality of the writing provides a sense of the great personal commitment of papermakers and the reliance on a tradition of passing learning directly from one person to the next.

In Part II, "The Craft in the West," Barrett describes the varied tools necessary to perform the technique in the West. He includes information on how to import tools, build them, and use them, providing detailed diagrams for this purpose. The materials section is documented with similar thoroughness, describing raw materials and the actual preparation methods employed for each different type of fiber. Work outlines, time estimates, and step by-step explanations are far more detailed than any previous writing in English on the topic. 165 photographs supplement the techniques described in the text. An appendix by Winifred Lutz, "Non-Japanese

fibers for Japanese Papermaking," describes both indigenous and naturalized fibers which will grow in the United States but still provide the aesthetic attributes of Jap anese fibers. Ms. Lutz's tests on each fiber are included, provid ing information on the type, harvest time and location, prepara tion, cooking, fermentation, beating, forming, pressing, and

drying methods as well as the strength, absorbency, appearance, and yield of the fiber.

To my surprise, the answer to the question of need of another book on Japanese papermaking is, yes. Timothy Barrett has writ ten a book in which the process of papermaking is described with personal observation and lively detail and is also technically more thorough than any previous book on the subject.

Nancy S. Allen Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

THE ROYAL PAVILION BRIGHTON/John Dinkel.-New York : Vend?me Press, 1983. ?144 p. : ill. (most col.). ?ISBN 0-86565

035-7; LC 83-14676. $19.95.

H.D. Roberts' A History of the Royal Pavilion Brighton (Coun try Life, 1937) and Clifford Musgrave's Royal Pavilion: An Epi sode in the Romantic (new enl. ed., L. Hill, 1959) have long needed an up-to-date replacement showing the new scholarship on this Sinomaniacal complex, despite their fine qualities. Only the lack of any serious scholarly apparatus (no notes, no cita tions, no bibliography, incomplete photo citations) keeps this vol ume from being that replacement. The dust jacket describes the book as this "Lovely, all-color book" and that is just what it is, despite many attractive qualities.

Mr. Dinkel brings to his work his background as Curator of the Royal Pavilion and a fine hand with prose, in fact, even a florid hand, a fulsome hand, an entertaining hand, and one just right for this extraordinary building. His text carried me along in the most delightful manner. I could not suppress, however, a constant nag

ging questioning about his lack of noted sources. Where did he get this or that bit of information? On page 103 he says of some pier tables that "the originals have been shown by Geoffrey de Bellaigue to be French . . .". Where? Mr. Dinkel quotes both Mrs.

Creevey and Lady Bessborough as to their opinions of the Pavil ion on pp. 115-16. Where did he read these quotations, or did they reveal themselves in a seance? The "Acknowledgement: The Photographs" section is the key to some locations, but pos sibly only of photographs and not of the objects shown.

If Mr. Dinkel's facts are straight (difficult to check in a book so undocumented as this one), it is then a delightful find. Mr. Dinkel puts pen to paper in a thoroughly entertaining manner. My inter est did not slacken for a moment and I could not detect any errors. The plates are good quality for a book of this price.

Robert C. Kaufmann New York City

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED (Subject to later review) Art & Other Serious Matters/Harold Rosenberg.?Chicago : Uni versity of Chicago Press, 1985.-332 p.-ISBN 0-226-72694-0 ; LC 84-8781 : $25.00. Art Beyond the Gallery in Early 20th Century England'/Richard Cork.-New Haven, CT. : Yale University Press, 1985.-332 p. ISBN 0-300-03236-6 : $65.00.

Art of Our Time : the Saatchi CollectionVPeter Schjeldahl.?Lon don : Lund Humphries in association with Rizzoli, 1984.?4 v.?

ISBN 0-085331-4764 (pbk) : $27.50 ea.

Arup Associates : Biography of an Architectural Office/Michael Brawne.-London : Lund Humphries, 1985.-200 p. : ill.-ISBN 0-83900-3471 : $39.50.

Cataloguing of Audiovisual Materials/Nancy B. Olson.?Man

kato, MN : Minnesota Scholarly Press, 1985.-306 p.-ISBN 0-933474-38-5 : $34.50.

Claude Lorrain, 1600-1682 : a Symposium/edited by Pamela Askew.?Studies in the History of Art, v. 14.?Washington D.C. :

National Gallery of Art, distributed by University Press of New England, 1984.-ISBN 0091-7388 : $17.50. Connections : the Architecture of Richard England, 1964- /504/Charles Knevitt.-Lund Humphries, 1985.-207 p. : ill.-ISBN 0-8390-0344-7 : $27.50.

Contemporary Designers/Editor, Ann Lee Morgan.?Detroit, Ml : Gale Research Co., 1984.-658 p. : ill.-ISBN 0-8103-2036-3 : $95.00.

The Copyright Directory I'Jerome K. Miller.?Vol. 1 : General Infor mation.?Friday Harbor, WA : Copyright Information Services, 1985.-ISBN 0-914143-02-6 : $23.00.

Decorative Painting in the Domestic Interior in England and Wales, c. 1850- 1890/by Helen Smith.-New York : Garland, 1985.-460 p.-ISBN 0-8240-5986-7 ; LC 83-48692 : $55.00.

Designer's Guide to Color 2/lntroductory essay by James Stock ton.-San Francisco : Chronicle Books, 1984.-128 p. : ill.-ISBN 0-87701-345-4 ; LC 84-21482 : $16.95. The Diary of Joseph Farrington, Vols. XV and XW/Katherine Cave.-New Haven, CT : Yale University Press, 1985. ?ISBN 0-300-03270-6 : $100.00. Dreadful Fire! : Burning of the Houses of Parliament/Katherine Solender.?Cleveland, Ohio : Cleveland Museum of Art in coop eration with Indiana University Press, 1985.? ISBN 0-910386-74-9 ; LC 84-17616 : $7.95 (pa.) English Art, 1870- 1940/Dennis Farr.-Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1984.-409 p. : ill.-ISBN 0-19-281855-4 ;LC 84-9654: $22.95.

Entries (Maximimalism) : Art at the Turn of the Decade/Robert Pincus-Witten.-New York : Out of London Press, 1983.-ISBN 0-91550-20-3 ; LC 82-62194 : $14.95. Fine Print : The Review for the Arts of the Book. ? San Francisco, CA : Fine Print, 1985. ? 10th anniversary issue. The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966- 7066/edited by Janet Backhouse ... [et al.].?Bloomington : Indiana University Press, c 1984.-ISBN 0-253-13326-2 (cloth) ; ISBN 0-253-21268-5 (pa.) ; LC 84-048492 : $32.50, $20.00 (pa.).

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