ETHNOGRAPHY — CZECHOSLOVAKIA JOHNOVA (Helena). — The Culture and Life...

ETHNOGRAPHY — CZECHOSLOVAKIA
JOHNOVA (Helena). — The Culture and Life of the Czechoslovak People. A Guide to the Collections of the Ethnographic Department of the National Museum in Prague.

Prague, National Museum, 1967.

Square quarto, approximately 20 × 20 cm, paperback, softcover with illustrations in black and ochre on both covers; approximately 37 pp., followed by about twenty pages of plates.

French edition of this guide to the ethnographic collections of the National Museum in Prague, authored by Helena Johnová, a leading Czech specialist in ethnography and museology. The original Czech edition was well-cataloged in 1967 by the National Museum in Prague.

The book offers an interesting overview of Czech, Moravian, and Slovak folk culture: traditional worldviews, beliefs and customs, seasonal festivals, folk music and songs, rural dwellings, furniture, crafts, costumes, and embroidery. It also bears witness to the rapid transformations of these traditions during the 20th century.

Numerous illustrations and reproductions of objects from the collections of the Ethnographic Department. A very attractive modernist cover, printed in black and ochre, with a different design on each side.

Helena Johnová played a significant role in Czechoslovak museum ethnography and was notably the author of several exhibition catalogs devoted to folk art; this 1967 guide is specifically cited among her works on the National Museum’s collections.

Condition: good copy. Some slight scuffing, small marks, and creases from use on the cover; interior is clean.