Specimens of Japanese art from the collection of Michael Tomkinson ...
A photogravure plate book from 1899 by M. Tomkinson, cataloguing Japanese art objects from his personal collection for collectors and connoisseurs. The plates show a carved figure holding a lantern and staff, a sprigged ceramic bowl photographed on its side, a bronze incense burner on a lion-like base, and a relief portrait of a bearded man on a wooden panel. A designer might take the soft tonal lighting, dark backdrops, and centred single-object compositions as a model for product photography.
