The Ink Art of China

Michael Goedhuis specialises in the best contemporary Asian and Western art. Their collection includes painting, sculpture, ink painting, bronzes and antiquities. They also represent contemporary artists and this catalogue shows the work of Ink Artists.

The size of the publication is 265x216mm, portrait with three hole sewn binding. It has a 4pp cover with 120mm flaps printed on a blue cover board from another well known Hull based paper merchant (!) with a 40pp text printed on Gardapat 13 Kiara 135gsm.

For readers not familiar with GardaPat 13, it's a fully coated paper but it really does have a dead flat MATT surface. There are many papers on the market which profess to be matt - some which incorporate the word matt in the name, but aren't! Apart from the high quality matt surface, this paper has an extraordinarily high bulk - this 135gsm text with a thickness of 175mics. If you would like to read more about the bulk, you can read it here.

Click on images to enlarge

Detail of the 3 hole sewing in the centre spread...

The text is digitally printed using an HP Indigo digital press and the results are superb, beautifully showing the artworks. As many readers will know, many materials have to be "Sapphire Treated" to work successfully on HP Indigo presses, however this project has been printed without sapphire treatment. 

Detail showing the three hole sewing on the spine...

The 40pp text flows nicely in the hand, feeling substantial but not overly heavy. 

Click on images to enlarge

Design and Art Direction is by Ornan Rotem at Sylph Editions. Printing and the terrific finishing - which was all achieved in house is by Zone Graphics, based in Paddock Wood in Kent. 

https://www.michaelgoedhuis.com/

http://www.sylpheditions.com/

www.zonegraphics.co.uk 

Posted by Justin Hobson 22.10.2020

The Flacks Family Collection

On 16 September last year, a selection of 46 lots from the collection of Marcus and Debby Flacks were auctioned at Christie's in New York.

Marcus Flacks is one of the pre-eminent sources for classical Chinese furniture, rare scholar’s objects and contemporary Asian paintings. Among the highlights are an extremely rare pair of 17th century huanghuali and spotted bamboo scholar’s cabinets, perhaps the only known pair in existence.

This is the auction catalogue produced by the Flacks family and Christie's for the sale. Size is 210x268mm, portrait.

The publication has 148pp text pages printed on Neptune Unique SoftWhite 135gsm (a bespoke weight). The cover is printed on Dali Neve 320gsm, with 133mm flaps on the inside front and back covers.

An important feature that makes all the difference to this publication is the binding. It is a square backed limp bound book (spine is 13mm) but the binding type that is used is called OTASTAR. This is a method of bookbinding that offers an elegant binding solution with advantages over conventional soft cover binding. One of the main advantages is that it lays flatter than a conventional section sewn book. It mimics the construction of a case bound book, so the spine of the text is free from the cover (see image below). It is this that results in the text and whole book laying flatter.

The publication is printed in CMYK throughout and the imagery is truly striking. The Neptune Unique SoftWhite used for the text is an uncoated off-white, smooth (yet tactile) text and cover paper - the printed result is simply fantastic.

Click on images to enlarge

Below is the pair of 17th century huanghuali and spotted bamboo scholar’s cabinets. These are possibly the only pair in existence.

Click on images to enlarge

Below is Liu Dan’s Far-off Journey, painted in 2006 for Marcus Flacks.

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The below images show the detail for the inside of the cover, printed in mono, showing the detail of the spotted bamboo.

Below is a detail of the outside front cover printed on Dali which is a felt-marked paper with a linear effect and a natural, tactile feel. The cover is printed CMYK and the title is hot foil blocked in metallic gloss foil. If you click on the image, you will be able to see the texture in the paper and the superb foiling...

Click on images to enlarge

The book is published by Sylph Editions. Design is by Ornan Rotem and production is by Num Stibbe. The superb printing is offset litho by Robstolk in Holland. The printed result on this uncoated substrate is simply superb, which combined with the superlative binding makes this a piece of print that is seriously noteworthy.

www.christies.com
http://www.mdflacks.com/
http://www.sylpheditions.com/
http://www.robstolk.nl/drukwerk/contact/

Posted by Justin Hobson 20.01.2017

John Eskenazi Invitations

John Eskenazi is one of the most internationally respected dealers in Indian, Gandharan, Himalayan and South-east Asian works of art. He is also a specialist in collectors' carpets and textiles.

This is the invitation to view the latest acquisitions.

Click on images to enlarge

The invitations are A5, portrait and are particularly thick and prestigious having been mounted onto our Construction Blackstone 1500microns, making the total thickness nearly 2mm.

The invitations have been printed on an HP Indigo digital press and this is interesting as it's the first time that I have seen a genuine duotone (just two colours) printed on an HP Indigo, rather than out of four colours

Design and Art Direction is by Ornan Rotem at Sylph Editions.

Printing and the terrific finishing - which was all achieved in house is by Zone Graphics, based in Paddock Wood in Kent.

www.john-eskenazi.net
http://www.sylpheditions.com/
www.zonegraphics.co.uk

Posted by Justin Hobson 10.11.2015

MD Flacks - Zitan catalogue

This is a catalogue for New York gallery MD Flacks which is a gallery that specialises in Chinese Furniture from the Ming and early Qing dynasties (17th – 18th Centuries).

These objects are rare, valuable and extremely fine and this publication needs to reflect all these facets.

 

This catalogue is for the Zitan exhibition and is a combination of pencil illustrations and photography. Being the inventors of paper (and arguably printing!) the Chinese culture is very paper orientated. This piece of literature uses deliberately lightweight materials with transparency to work in sympathy with the cultural heritage of the subject matter.

 

The result is a tactile and visual experience which I'm afraid is impossible to translate into photographic images here.

Size is 225x310mm, portrait. Materials used are Virtual Clouds 160gsm for the dustjacket, wrapped around a StarFine Natural White 300gsm cover and the 32pp text is printed on our Offenbach Bible 60gsm.

Particular care has been taken over the print reproduction of these extremely fine objects. In many cases, these pieces have subtle detail, grains and texture which need to be seen and appreciated by the collector, so the reproduction achieved on the Offenbach Bible is of paramount importance to the sucess of this catalogue.

Design and Art Direction is by Ornan Rotem. Print production is managed by Robert Marcuson Bespoke Publishing.

http://www.mdflacks.com/
robert@marcuson.co.uk
http://www.rotem.eu/

Posted by Justin Hobson 17.06.2011