Pre-Columbian Art: Robert Woods Bliss Collection

Description

Authors: Lothrop, S.K.  (Samuel Kirkland) (1892-1965); Foshag, W. F. (William Frederick) (1894-1956): and Mahler, Joy (1920-1995)

Publisher: Phaidon Publishers

Pub Date: 1957

Binding: Hardcover (in slipcase)

Condition: Fair.  Binding tight but worn.  Interior front gutter rebound.  Without dust jacket.  Previous owner’s name written in ink on ffep upper corner at spine head.  The name is partially covered by the new tape rebind.  Lower front gutter at spine foot has 2 parallel cuts, each approx. 1/2″.  Not detached.  Wear to lower corners and edges, spine head and foot.  Gilt on front board still sharp, gilt on spine not so much.  Color and black-and-white photographs.  Frontispiece tipped in (see photo above).   Includes one double fold-out.  Original slipcase was in poor condition so I had a new slipcase built, with front and rear photos from the original (see photos above).

Notes:  Not necessarily an exhibit catalog, more a catalog of Bliss’s Pre-Columbian collection of art and artifacts.  Mostly color photos.  Includes a “Catalogue” of the items shown with sizes and descriptions, referenced to Indigenous Art of the Americas, Collection of Robert Woods Bliss (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1947).  From the library of the writer, curator, painter and art critic Elizabeth Polk Benson, her partially covered name on ffep (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_P._Benson).  Ephemera is  a “With the Compliments of…” card addressed to Benson  by the collector Robert Woods Bliss, inscribed on the card as “RWB”.  Bliss (1875-1962) was a diplomat to Sweden and Argentina, and served in the State Department in D.C.  Bliss and his wife were the founders of Dumbarton Oaks (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dumbarton_Oaks), a research facility and museum specializing in Byzantine and Pre-Columbian art.  They donated the 16 acres of their estate, housing the museum and collections to Harvard University, and an additional 27 acres to the National Park Service, to create Dumbarton Oaks Park in Georgetown.  Bliss and Benson maintained a professional relationship spanning more than two decades.  Quite an amazing collection.  Love the Bliss/Benson backstory.