American Art Collaborative

This lovely book is a catalog of blue-and-white Chinese porcelain from the collection of Sir Henry Thompson (1820–1904). Thompson collaborated on the illustrations with James McNeill Whistler, one of the most prominent artists of the Aesthetic Movement, which advocated "art for art's sake." Several letters from Whistler are bound into the volume. For the binding, Charles Meunier incorporated porcelain plaques into his design of prunus blossoms and featured Whistler's famous abstract butterfly signature.