彫鐫画譜 Album of Designs for Metal Carving (<i>Chōsen Gafu</i>) 1825 - 1875

This is an album of designs for metal carving, made by Ranzan Tsuneyuki in Japan, sometime in the mid-19th century. The album would have been a crucial resource in workshops producing metalwork objects. Its pages likely contain detailed drawings meant to guide the hands of skilled metalworkers, showing them exactly where to apply their chisels and other tools. The album itself is relatively modest: paper pages bound in a textile cover. But consider the skill and labor it represents. Metal carving is an unforgiving medium, demanding precision and expertise. The designs in this album would have been carefully studied, copied, and adapted. As such, the object provides us with a glimpse into the workshops of the time and into the labor and creative exchange that underpinned the production of metalwork. Looking at the album, we see beyond just a book; we see a network of makers, materials, and techniques. This reminds us that even the most functional objects are deeply embedded in social and cultural practices.