十竹齋書畫譜 不分卷 四
This is a Chinese woodblock-printed painting manual, the Ten Bamboo Studio album of calligraphy and painting, compiled by Hu Zhengyan in the Ming dynasty and held here under a Japanese picture-book heading. The pictures are ink-and-colour studies of plum branches with blossoms on plain paper, with some seal marks and calligraphic inscriptions in the margins. A designer could take from them the economy of spare brushwork, pale washes of coral pink against grey-black bark, and the open, unfilled negative space.
