Exquisite Fabrics

Book excerpt: This authoritative collector's book is the largest collection of Chinese weaving and embroider patterns available. For more than twenty-five hundred years the patterns of Chinese silk textiles captured the imaginations of their beholders. The woven and embroidered designs catalogued in Exquisite Fabrics, a survey by Gao Chunming, combine consummate mechanical and technical skill with an aesthetic vision driven by the need to communicate the most important message of Chinese culture. This Chinese art book is a compilation of over one thousand Chinese traditional designs found in weaving and embroidery. Known as zhiwen or wen in ancient China, these traditional patterns are the products of brilliant artistic skills that have been passed down from one generation to the next. Available in a gorgeous slipcase, this book presents a wide and comprehensive range of classical design motifs that include: dragons phoenix birds auspicious animals floral patterns insects and fish figures religious allegorical