A New Book of Chinese Designs

Matthias Darly

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Book with title, index and 114 numbered plates (out of 120) of 'A New Book of Chinese Designs', etched and published in 1754 by the British caricaturist, printseller and ornamental engraver Matthew Darly, in collaboration with George Edwards. Apprenticed to the clockmaker Umfraville Sampson in 1735, Darly worked with Chippendale in the 1750s, and engraved most of the plates for the 'Director'. During 1755-57, he worked in partnership with the ornithologist George Edwards, and in the early 1760s he published many political prints, with a particular dedication to social satires from the mid-1760s. The book contains a variety of ornamental and costume designs of Chinese inspiration, some of them photostatic reproductions of the original works (including the title). It has green and white half-leather binding.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art