Stein, Marc Aurel The Thousand Buddhas. Ancient Buddhist Paintings from the Cave-Temples of Tun-Huang on the western frontier of China. Recovered and described by Aurel Stein, K.C.I.E. With an introductory essay by Laurence Binyon. Published under the Orders of H.M. Secretary of State for India and with the co-operation of the Trustees of the British Museum. London Bernard Quaritch; plates by Henry Stone & Son of Banbury. 1921
First edition, two volumes, text in folio, 40 x 31 cm., pp.xii, 65; title-page and 48 plates, thirty-three in large folio, 64 x 51 cm., twelve in three colour, twenty-one in halftone, and fifteen smaller plates, 40 x 31 cm, of which ten in three colour, 5 in halftone. Plates have discretely stamped on reverse, "Printed in England". Overall a very good copy, but showing minor use and wear. Title page lightly spotted. Large plates slightly dog-eared at corners, a few with a small area of lower margin lightly water stained, but images unaffected. The text volume is in original wrappers, with small tears to cover, otherwise pristine. The smaller plates are in fine condition, preserved in their original envelope. The whole is contained in the original half-cloth portfolio. Rear cover of portfolio somewhat spotted, and minor tears to cloth spine.
Erdelyi 1.095.

A beautifully printed complement to Serindia, published as "reproductions of select specimens from among the great collection of ancient Buddhist paintings which... I had the good fortune to recover from a walled-up chapel at the 'Caves of a Thousand Buddhas' near Tun-huang". Stein considered the collections he removed from Chinese Turkestan to be a field in which "India may justly claim a predominant interest" as "the spread of Buddhist religion and literature over Central Asia and into the Far East is the greatest achievement by which India has influenced Asia in the past," but he does admit in his introduction here that for these paintings at least, "the preponderance of Chinese taste and style was all the same unmistakable from the first." The costs of this substantial work were partially underwritten by the India Office at the urging of the Secretary of State for India, Austen Chamberlain, after he was shown the paintings personally by Stein at the British Museum.