BLISS (Robert Woods). — Indigenous Art of the Americas. Coll - Lot 55

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BLISS (Robert Woods). — Indigenous Art of the Americas. Coll - Lot 55
BLISS (Robert Woods). — Indigenous Art of the Americas. Collection of Robert Woods Bliss. Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, 1947. Quarto, 159 pp., paperback with a beige softcover illustrated with a pre-Columbian artifact. Numerous black-and-white photographic reproductions and a few color illustrations; fold-out map. Text in English. First edition of this important catalog devoted to Robert Woods Bliss’s collection of pre-Columbian art, published on the occasion of its exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington. The institutional bibliography confirms the collation: 159 pages, plates beginning on p. 49, some in color, a fold-out map, and an addendum sheet. The collection brings together works from the major pre-Columbian cultures of the Americas: the Olmecs, Maya, Aztecs, Teotihuacán, Toltecs, Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Chimu, and Incas, as well as works from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and Peru. The photographs feature, among other things, stone masks, jade objects, statuettes, ceramics, bronze and copper objects, and gold and silverwork. It is a valuable older reference catalog. The exhibition *Indigenous Art of the Americas* opened at the National Gallery on April 18, 1947, and featured approximately 250 works in gold, jade, terracotta, stone, and textiles, selected primarily for their aesthetic quality. Bliss was advised on classification by Samuel K. Lothrop and Matthew W. Stirling. Its documentary value is enhanced by its prestigious provenance: the Robert Woods Bliss collection forms the core of the Dumbarton Oaks pre-Columbian collection. Objects reproduced in this 1947 catalog are still cited today with this reference in Dumbarton Oaks’ scholarly catalog entries. Condition: fair to fairly good. Interior is clean, and the illustrations are well preserved. However, the cover is quite worn: soiling and stains, scuffing, creases, minor damage, and tears along the margins and headbands, with a more significant tear or damage in the upper right corner.
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