Title page of "A New Book of Chinese Designs" 1754

Curator: My first impression? Elegant restraint. It's just lettering, but the kind that sings. Editor: Indeed. What we're looking at is the title page of "A New Book of Chinese Designs," dating back to 1754. It was made by Matthew Darly and published in England. I am fascinated by the Rococo details. It’s print work, likely engraving, a reproducible image with specific and interesting material implications Curator: The 'Chinese Designs' part…do you think that was accurate? Or was it more of an idea of China, filtered through an 18th-century English lens? Editor: I think 'filtered' is the operative word here. The East was highly fashionable, its visual markers were commodified for mass production. Curator: There's this tension, though, between mass production and what is obviously a craft-oriented aesthetic. The flourish on that "C" in "Chinese"... someone really cared about how that looked. Editor: Absolutely. This print represents a commercial exchange as much as it expresses artistic creativity. The labor in making this would be extensive. Curator: And what's interesting to me is how we now look back and find beauty – even unintentional beauty – in something that was fundamentally about commerce. We look at this almost like a love letter now, right? Editor: Perhaps a more accurate comparison would be seeing this title page as the artifact of broader socioeconomic forces, not only about cultural exchange and consumption, but a reflection of societal norms about class, craft, and even authorship. Curator: True. It shifts your perspective when you realize that this book was meant to inspire someone's parlor room decorations and perhaps dictate that person's view of Asia, even the labor conditions. I am so pleased it's also given me some deeper awareness and new perspective, today. Editor: Precisely! The convergence of art, craft, and commerce that make cultural and social meaning in ways that reverberate across centuries! A great end point to our observation of the book today!