Laufer Berthold. The decorative art of the Amur tribes

The Jesup North Pacific Expedition. — New York, 1902. — 86 p. + 33 plates. — (Memoirs of the American Museum of Natural History. Volume 7).This monograph, like all the memoirs of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, consists of the presentation (in 1902) of entirely new material. Sumptuously illustrated with 250 drawings, it deals with the decorative art, which is practically all the art, of the Gold (Nanai), Gilyak (Nivkh), Orochs, and other tribes of the Amur region, including the Ainu. More articles of the Gold are described than all the other tribes together. Various arts are represented - carving in relief, ornamental painting, cutting of patterns in birch-bark and paper, and especially embroidering. A great variety of decorated objects are treated, such as eye-protectors, mittens, spears, baskets, coats and spoons. The bulk of the book consists of a reproduction in illustrations (many in color) of a large number of specimens of this art, and of an analysis in the text of the ornamental forms that are shown. This analysis is carried out with great detail and much accuracy; it is so undeniably thorough as to make tedious reading to any one not specifically interested in problems of ornamentation. This care and thoroughness of analysis, however, give the book its value.