WESTERN TRAVELLERS IN CHINADISCoVERINg THE MIDDLE KINgDoM

WESTERN TRAVELLERS IN CHINADiscovering the Middle Kingdom

• COORDINATION Michel Wittock

• CURATOR Annie De Coster

• PHOTOGRAPHS Luc Schrobiltgen

• GRAPHICDESIGN www.triptyque.be

Bibliotheca Wittockiana

23 rue du Bemel - 1150 Bruxelles

info@wittockiana.org

www.wittockiana.org

tel 02 770 53 33

fax 02 762 21 39

Bibliotheca Wittockiana © october 2009

Legal deposit number : D/2009/3974/2

Dereume Printing, Drogenbos

This book accompanies the exhibition“Western Travellers in China” held at the Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Brussels,28 October 2009 – 10 January 2010

This book is published with the financial support of Bernard Hanotiau.

The exibition is held with the generous support of the Brussels-Capital Region,

the French Community, the French Community Commission,

the Flemish Community Commission, and Léon Eeckman Art Insurance.

BIBLIOTHECA WITTOCKIANAMMIX

WESTERN TRAVELLERS IN CHINADiscovering the Middle Kingdom

Europalia International is an international non-profit association, which aims to promote

cultural heritages by holding the Europalia Festival. Launched in Brussels in 1969, the

name Europalia comes from a combination of two words – Europe and Opalia (the Roman

festival celebrating a rich harvest). Europalia is held every two years in Brussels and other

Belgian towns, including frontier regions, and runs for several months. This multidisciplinary

festival illustrates all aspects of the art and culture of European or non European countries.

In the aims of promoting understanding between the nations, the partner country of each

festival is given the opportunity to show its cultural heritage in the best possible way.

Europalia hopes, in this way, to raise the cultural and educational importance of Europe

and confirm the role of Belgium and Brussels, the capital of the European Union.

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Europalia international is celebrating this year its 40th anniversary and has established an

extensive network of correspondents all Europe and Belgium, it has acquired a worldwide

reputation and is today ranked among the most important festivals in Europe.

By devoting this twenty-second Europalia festival to China, the President of the People’s

republic of China, Hu Jintao, and HM the King of the Belgians, have opened up new

perspectives of cultural cooperation between Europalia and Chinese culture in all its

diversity and dynamic evolution.

With some fifty exhibitions throughout Belgium, europalia.china 2009 promises to be an

exceptional festival. A total of fifty-eight museums, libraries, archaeological institutes,

and public and private cultural institutions from nineteen of China’s provinces, cities,

regions and autonomous regions have provided the event with exceptional loans – some

of which are being shown outside China for the very first time.

From the start, China’s Ministry of Culture and the Europalia team sought to define the

major themes of an event covering a number of aspects of Chinese culture, civilization,

art and everyday life.

After some trial and error, four major themes were agreed upon Eternal China,

Contemporary China, Colourful China, China and the World. These key shows will anchor

a number of other exhibitions and events, both public and private, and resulting from

both Belgian and Chinese initiatives. Together, they present a varied and sometimes

unconventional panorama of Chinese cultural life.

The Chinese Ministry of Culture has spared no effort in making europalia.china a

festival of extraordinary breadth. Under the leadership of Dong Junxin, a friendly and

interdependent collaboration developed with the Belgian Europalia team, which extends

to him its heartfelt thanks.

The National Art Museum of China and its director Fan Di’an, who is General Curator for

the various shows, the State Administration for Cultural Heritage, and the museums –

too numerous to mention here – that loaned works of art all contributed to transforming

europalia.china’s exhibitions into signal events in cultural relations between China,

Europe and Belgium. It is impossible to adequately thank them.

Europalia’s partners, including Bekaert, GDF Suez and Total, as well as Hainan Airlines,

have offered us their very generous support.

Claire KirschenGeneral commissioner

europalia.china

FoREWoRD

For centuries, Belgium has entertained close relationships with China and several prominent

Belgians have even played an important role in its early history.

Willem Van Rubroeck, a Flemish Franciscan priest, was, with his Italian colleague, Jean de

Plan Carpin, one of the first Western travellers to China, where he was sent in 1253 by Saint

Louis, King of France.

Four centuries later, in 1656, Ferdinand Verbiest, a Flemish Jesuit, left for China, where he

entered the court of the Emperor four years later as an astronomer. He subsequently became

the head of the Imperial Bureau of Astronomy, built the Peking observatory and travelled

extensively through Manchuria with the Chinese Emperor Kangxi. Father Verbiest was

accompanied in China by another Belgian priest, Father Philippe Couplet, who later became

Procurator General of the Chinese Jesuit missions.

The Belgian tradition of travelling to China has continued over the centuries: no longer

only in a context of evangelization but also to create diplomatic links and open the way to

commerce and industry.

For centuries, China has aroused considerable interest in the Western world. Relationships

with China already existed at the time of the Roman and Greek Empires. In the first centuries

of our era, several Greek and Roman authors already referred to a country named Seres (the

country of the silk), Sin, Sine, Qin, Cina or Cathay. Commercial relationships also developed

at that time between China and the Arab world. However, with few exceptions, the first

narratives of travel to China were written by missionaries, among which a number of Belgians,

without forgetting of course the famous Marco Polo.

In later centuries, the travellers were no longer only missionaries but also adventurers,

members of embassies sent by Western powers, such as England, Holland, Russia, etc.,

businessmen and industrialists. Their travel narratives were generally published and translated

into several languages: Latin, English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese or Dutch. They

were often illustrated with drawings, at a time when photography did not yet exist. But from

the middle of the 19th century, the first photographers – such as Beato, Itier, Thomson and

Child – ventured to China with their very heavy and cumbersome photographic equipment

and started to offer to the Western world the first photographs of the Middle Kingdom.

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Selecting one hundred and thirty volumes from a large collection of travel books to China is

not an easy task. We have decided to devote the first part of the exhibition to a presentation

of the publications of Western travellers from the 15th to the 19th century, many of them

written by missionaries, members of embassies or other early travellers. The selection has

been dictated not only by the importance and rarity of the volumes, but also by the quality

of the drawings and engravings contained therein, in order to give the public a visual image

of the Chinese world during these early centuries.

The second part of the exhibition is devoted to a presentation of early photographs of China,

either original prints, reproductions in books generally published in very limited editions or

photo albums compiled by private travellers.

Some visitors may perhaps be surprised that some famous names do not appear in our

selection. In most cases, this can be explained by the fact that, with the exception of very

early publications, priority has been given to books containing engravings, drawings and

photographs.

The preparation of this exhibition and the catalogue would not have been possible without

the assistance of several colleagues and friends. I thank in the first place Ms. Dorothée Petroff

who has assisted me in preparing the description of the books, Michel and Fiammetta Wittock,

as well as Annie De Coster, of Bibliotheca Wittockiana, who have spent a considerable amount

of time helping me prepare, compose and finalize the catalogue. I also extend my thanks

to my friend Dr. Christian Dupuis who has reviewed the text, to Luc Schrobiltgen who has

taken the photographs, to my secretary Sophie Vandewalle, and last but not least, to Alain

Devauchelle without whom the collection would not be what it is today.

I hope that the exhibition will give the visitors a good sense of the Middle Kingdom as it was

discovered by early travellers and, even better, that it will fulfil their dreams.

Bernard Hanotiaubhchinabooks@gmail.com

Cat. 20

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IntroductIon

For many Europeans the discovery of China is ultimately linked to the emblematic figure of the Venetian

merchant Marco Polo (1254-1324/25). It is assumed that in 1271, still a young boy, he accompanied his

father and uncle on their travels through Asia, during which they reached Cathay, at that time governed

by the Mongols. They stayed there for some time in the service of Khublai Khan and on the Khan’s behalf

Marco Polo travelled extensively. Only in 1295 did he touch Venetian soil again, but at that time Venice

was at war with Genua and Marco Polo was to find himself emprisoned. Here he happened to share a cell

with Rusticello, who would eventually write down Marco Polo’s account of his travels. In the exhibition,

wich focuses on the printed testimony of the discovery by westerners of China and part of Asia, two

printed versions of this account are shown (cat. 7 and 6): the first, a very rare French edition printed by

Jehan Longis in 1556 in Paris, La description géographique des provinces & villes de l’Inde orientale (cat. 7),

the second a Venetian edition In cui si tratta le meravigliose cose del mundo (cat. 6) published one year

earlier. The stories about the many marvels that he had seen and encountered, met not only with curiosity,

but also with a tremendous amount of disbelief. With a transmission of texts that is highly complicated

and to a certain extent corrupt, Marco Polo’s account certainly did a great deal to make China’s existence

known in the Western world, where it had hardly been known before the 12th century. But the discovery

of China cannot be claimed by the Renaissance, as it actually began many centuries earlier. Even if these

earlier sources are beyond the scope of this exhibition, which concentrates on the printed reflection of

Western-Chinese contacts, it is important to focus on them, because their information, whether accurate

or not, is transmitted, far into the Renaissance. The unsurpassable Joseph Needham has established

beyond any doubt that the beginning of these contacts goes back as early as the Bronze Age (1500 BC).

These contacts were directly linked with the ancient trade routes. The fourth-century Roman historian

Ammianus Marcellinus (325/330-after 391) whose writings are presented here in the 1672 French edition

printed by Claude Barbin, Les dix-huit livres qui nous restent des XXXI de l’Histoire (cat. 23), was the first in

the classical tradition to mention the Great Silk Road. But there are specific names for this nearly mythical

country, such as Seres, Sina, Sin, Chin and Cathay. Seres is derived from the Chinese "ssu" or silk and came

to Europe as the Greek "ser". Its origin lies in Sanskrit ; it is a corruption of the name for the Chinese Chin-

dynasty and came by way of India to Europe. Cathay comes from the tenth century tribal name Chhi-tan

Liao, that through the Russian Khitay, became Cathay. Greek scholars, such as Herodotus, Ptolemy of

Alexandria, gave descriptions of parts of China, based on travellers’ and merchants’ reports. As early as the

5th century BC Herodotus described in detail the Central Asian Scythians and their contacts, mentioning

the Hyperboreans, a tribe that dwelled in the lower Yellow River Regions. Information travelled alongside

other goods by land and by sea. The early land-routes went mainly trough Central Asia westwards and

the sea-routes went via India.

The classical sources featuring in the exhibition, and giving a testimony of this knowledge, are

first of all Dionysius Periegetes, De situ orbis (Venice, Christophorus de Pensis) who provided us,

presumably in the 2nd century AD with a description of the habitable world (cat. 1), and Pliny the

Elder in his Historiae naturalis Libri XXXVII (cat. 3).

Another tradition manifests itself in the exhibition by means of the compilation of Eusebe

Renaudot, Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine, de deux voyageurs Mahometans, qui allèrent

dans le neuvième siècle; traduites d’Arabe (Paris, Jean-Baptiste Coignard, 1718). The first account

is presumably based on statements provided by the Arab merchant Sulaiman, and the second

on those by Hasan Ibn Yazid and Abu Zaid Hasan. Only in the 18th century their accounts were

translated and the information they contained about government issues, customs etc. proved to

be most valuable. Their influence in the Arab world was considerable and they played a highly

important role in the dissemination of knowledge about China. These are certainly not the only

works on China, written in the Arab cultural sphere, but a considerable part of them has even

today not yet been translated, which is in strong contrast to the many centuries of commercial and

cultural contacts between China and the Islamic world. The western world has chosen to look only

at the Greek and Roman sources for the gathering of information about China, thereby neglecting

Arab and Indian sources, both possessing an important scientific tradition. It is difficult to imagine

the huge amount of knowledge the Western world has missed completely.

Another compilation, by Pierre Bergeron, (cat. 38), published in 1735 contains early European

accounts of travels Voyages faits principalement en Asie dans les XIIe, XIIIe, XIVe et XVe siècles, par

Benjamin de Tudele, Jean du Plan-Carpin, N. Ascelin, Guillaume de Rubruquis, Marc Paul Venitien,

Haiton, Jean de Mandeville, et Ambroise Contarini: accompagnés de l'histoire des Sarasins et des

Tartares et précédez d'une introduction concernant les voyages et les nouvelles découvertes des

principaux voyageurs (The Hague, Jean Neaulme, 1735).

Just look at two names : Jean du Plan Carpin and Willem van Ruysbroeck, two 13th-century Franciscans.

Du Plan Carpin was already 63 years old when sent on his mission to the Tartars by Pope Innocent IV

in 1245, to invite them to embrace the Christian faith. This mission failed and du Plan Carpin returned

to Europe two years later with a letter from the Mongol Khan, addressed to the Pope, inviting him and

the kings of the western kingdoms to submit themselves to him. Nevertheless du Plan Carpin returned

with a treasure-store of information on the Mongols A few years later, in 1253 his fellow Franciscan, the

Fleming Willem van Ruysbroeck undertook the same voyage, but this time as an envoy of the French

king Louis IX. Upon the return of Ruysbroeck, the king was presented with a detailed report, in which he

related also his geographical and anthropological observations. In the Catholic Encyclopedia, P. Schlager

speaks of a geographical masterpiece.

Of all European visitors, the missionaries certainly succeeded in strengthening the ties with China.

They acquired a lot of information about China which was passed on, compilated and which served

later generations of travellers.

A special role was hereby reserved for the Jesuits, who in the footsteps of Francis Xaver, went to

China, to convert the inhabitants, but who were responsible for a major cultural and scientific

exchange. The first missionaries of the Society of Jesus arrived in China in 1565.

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For them a place at the margins of society was not enough. They wrote extensively on many subjects,

as can be seen in their numerous publications, which were often well illustrated. Cartography,

mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, history and philosophy were but some of the topics dealt

with in their publications. Michele Ruggieri (1543-1607) and Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) had a keen

eye for the religious perception of the Chinese in their three main religions : Buddhism, Taoism

and Confucianism. Jesuits in general, preferred to take certain elements that did not conflict with

Christian doctrine, and to use these in their attempts to christianize, even if this meant that certain

concessions had to be made, for instance towards the reverence for Confucius and the cult for the

elders. This practice met with fierce opposition from the other catholic orders and became known

as the rites controversy, which ended only with a decree issued by Pope Pius XII in 1939.

The religious zeal of the Jesuits could only be equalled by their expertise in science. Many of

them were versed in linguistic and technical skills, and they were convinced of the necessity of

learning the language, and of acquiring a knowledge of customs and habits. Their descriptions of

Chinese life and custom had a major influence on the Western perception of China. Authors such

as Maffei (cat. 11) and Botéro (cat. 12) got their information at second hand, but compiled and

disseminated the information thus acquired. In the 17th century authors such as Matteo Ricci and

Nicolas Trigault (cat. 14) made the Western world conscious of the existence of a highly civilized

world at the other side of the earth. Ricci used western science to introduce Christianity into

China. Chinese science was well advanced and welcomed innovations, which commanded respect

from the Chinese. Ricci himself introduced Euclidean geometry. He was the first of a series of

mathematicians working in China. But Ricci was also a clever cartographer and diplomat. Although

it does not feature in the exhibition it is worth mentioning that he drew in 1584 his first map of

the world, with Chinese comments, where China, “The Middle Kingdom”, had a central place. The

Chinese lacked a complete image of their own empire, so Ricci chose not to present China as a

mere continent. We must not forget that in the 17th century the Church held on to the Ptolemaic

image of the world and that the innovations of Copernicus, Galilei and Kepler met with a lot of

opposition. These Jesuits were men of science but also men of the Cloth and had to be loyal to

Church doctrine, however frustating this must have been for their scientifically trained minds.

Ricci’s exploit was repeated by Ferdinand Verbiest, who could already integrate many of these

innovations and thus introduce the modern concept of world cartography. Together with Johann

Adam Schall von Bell, another Jesuit, he constructed the observatory in Beijing, and introduced

astronomy, a modern perpetual calendar, and the modern concept of world cartography into

China. Speaking of cartography and China is speaking about the Italian Jesuit Martino Martini, who

combined historical skill with cartography, delivering an immensily popular history of China, De

bello Tartarico historia (cat. 15), of which the first edition printed in Antwerp by Balthasar Moretus

in 1654 features in the exhibition. Martini was a student of mathematics and a pupil of Athanasius

Kircher. During his travels in China he carried out the necessary surveys and combining revised

Ming surveys with his own, determined the astronomical position of many Chinese towns.

This resulted in the Novus Atlas Sinensis published in Amsterdam by Joan Bleau in 1655 (cat. 16).

His atlas remained the norm for nearly a century until in 1737 Jean-Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville

had his Nouvel Atlas de la Chine, de la Tartarie Chinoise, et du Thibet: contenant les cartes generales &

particulieres de ces pays. ainsi que la carte du royaume de Coree, published in The Hague, to accompany

Father J.B. du Halde's Description géographique, historique, chronologique, et physique de l'Empire de

la Chine, 1735 (cat. 39).

Some missionaries published about religion and philosophy, as did Father Couplet in his Histoire

d'une dame chrétienne de la Chine où par occasion les usages de ces peuples, l'établissement de la

religion, les manières des missionnaires et les exercices de piété des nouveaux chrétiens sont expliquez,

Paris, E. Michallet, 1686-1687 (cat. 26). Couplet also published Confucius Sinarum Philosophus, the

first Western translation of a Chinese philosophical work. And let us not forget the “Master of a

Hundred Arts”, Athanasius Kircher, who wanted to do missionary work in China, but never got that

far, and who in his China Illustrata, wished to present all that was known about China (cat. 20).

The existence of trade routes led also to diplomatic exchange. The aim was of course to secure as

much trade as possible for one’s own country. The best known diplomatic and trade mission was

perhaps that of Lord Macartney, who travelled to China at the request of King George III (1792-1794).

His mission was described by G.L. Staunton, An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of

Great-Britain to the Emperor of China, and illustrated by William Alexander (cat. 47), an artist who also

illustrated the work of J. Barrow, and who had himself published Travels in China (cat. 50), also a work

with finely coloured drawings, containing sketches of the state of society, the manners and customs,

the civil and moral character of the people, the language, literature and fine arts, the sciences and

civil institutions, the religious worship and opinions, the amusements of the court, reception of

Ambassadors, character and private life of the Emperor, women and eunuchs. Though its diplomatic

mission failed, due to Macartney’s non-compliance with Chinese court customs – as he refused to

execute the "kow-tow" - the trip could be seen as a success in that it brought to Europe a wider

knowledge of things Chinese.

The prolific publications and their translations were rich in descriptions of customs, peculiarities

etc., and most of them were exquisitely illustrated with hand-coloured prints. France, Russia, and

the Dutch "Verenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie" organized similar missions. The works of Andreas

van Braam Houckgeest (cat. 48), one of the three reports written by members of the Dutch East

India Company and of course Olfert Dapper, Gedenkwaerdig Bedryf der Nederlandsche Oost-Indische

Maetschappye, op de kuste en in het keizerrijk van Taising of Sina (Amsterdam, Jacob van Meurs,

1670), are well known. The first edition of this work features in the exhibition. Unsurpassed in

detail, illustration, influence and popularity, this description covers every imaginable aspect of

China as far as it was then known, and the nearly 100 engravings cover topography, ethnology,

religion, costumes, language, writing, zoology, botany and other topics (cat. 21).

15

Some of these books concentrate on Chinese art and architecture like that of the architect Sir William

Chambers, which lies at the root of the love of chinoisery, that influenced architectural and decorative

styles throughout Europe (cat. 41).

Other books are characterized by a keen interest in plants. We only have to refer to the magnifically

illustrated Arts, métiers et cultures de la Chine, représentés dans une suite de gravures, exécutees d’après

les dessins originaux envoyés de Pekin – Art du vernis (Paris, Nepveu, 1814-1815), by Pierre Le Chéron

d’Incarville (1706-1757), a French Jesuit and amateur botanist who joined the China Mission in 1740,

with a special interest in bamboo and lacquer trees (cat. 57). Also Robert Fortune’s, with A Journey

to the tea Countries of China (London, John Murray, 1852), speaks to our imagination. Fortune was

a plant hunter sent out to China to collect seeds of the tea shrub and to study its cultivation. It

goes without saying that the Chinese were not really cooperative, so Fortune disguised himself as a

Chinese and was able to introduce tea shrubs in India, with great success (cat. 69).

The books in the catalogue are presented in chronological order following their date of publication,

giving an image of the dissemination of knowledge about China in the Western world. In the

catalogue a special chapter will be dedicated to photography, to be discussed on page 141.

The present exhibition illustrates the age-long history of ouvertures made between China and

Europe, with occasional advances to the United States of America and Japan. Our fascination for

this vast country cannot stop growing. How to imagine the persistance of these voyagers, these

explorers, travellers who are reponsable for our knowledge about this magnificent country ?

Our warmest thanks are due to the collector who graciously and generously put his wonderful

collection at our disposal, allowing a large public to enjoy it.

Annie De CosterHead curator of the Bibliotheca Wittockiana

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1. DIONYSIUS PERIEGETES De situ orbis. Venice, Christophorus de Pensis, 1498. 1 vol. in-4° (220 x 157 mm) ; [62] pp. Text in Latin. 19th century plain boards.

Early edition of Dionysius’ poem describing the geography of the known world in some 1,200 elegant hexameters written in a terse and elegant style. The first edition was published in 1477.Dionysius, a Greek author, is commonly known as Periegetes (the guide). His life dates, and indeed his origins, are not known, but he is believed to have been from Alexandria and to have flourished around the time of Hadrian (2nd century), though some put him as late as the end of the 3rd century.Dionysius’ Geography, or description of the world so far as it was known in his time, was an extremely popular schoolbook in classical times. De situ orbis undertakes a versified account of the known world with its seas, countries, and islands. During the Renaissance, it became quite popular, no doubt because of the combined interest of humanists for newly published ancient texts and the growing interest in geography as reports of the discovery of new lands circulated.Until the 12th century, China was practically unknown in Europe. We can only find vague references to the Serica, the land of the Seres, or Sinica or Sine in some Greek and Roman works, like in the Dionysius’ work, sketching a knowledge of China’s hazy existence. According to Löwendahl, the earliest surviving account of China in European literature is the description of “Thin”, alternatively rendered “This” and also “Sin”, “Chin” or “China”, in The Periplus of the Erythean Sea written by an anonymous Roman writer of the first century. Other allusions of China in early western printed books are found in Pliny the Elder’s Historia naturalis and Pomponius Mela’s Cosmographia.

Löwendahl, 1 (for the 1477 edition); Lach (1965), pp. 15-16.

2. MELA (PomPonius) De situ orbis. SOLINUS (C. Julius) Polyhistor. ANTONINUS (Augustus) Itinerarum provinciarum. VIBIUS SEQUESTER Virgiliano Filio salutem.VICTOR (Publius) De regionibus urbis Romae liber. AFER (Dionysius) De orbis situ. Venice, “in aedibus Aldi et Andreae soceri”, 1518. 1 vol. in-12° (165 x 110 mm) ; 233, [3] ff. Contemporary limp vellum.

First and only Aldine edition of this collection of Greek and Roman geographical texts, including Pomponius Mela’s popular work.

The roman geographer Pomponius Mela lived around AD 43. He wrote a geographical survey of the inhabited world, that he divided into north and south hemispheres and five zones. In his work De situ orbis libri III, he describes the country of Seres, that is, of the people of “the silk country” (from Latin sericum, silk), locating it to the north of India and to the east of Bactria and Sogdiana, giving the following details : « In the furthest East of Asia are the Indians, Seres, and Scythians. The Indians and Scythians occupy the two extremities, the Seres are in the middle » (Pomponius Mela, De situ orbis, I, 2).

Adams M-1053.

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3. PLINIUS SECUNDUS (Gaius) Historiae naturalis Libri XXXVII. E castigationibus Hermolai Barbari ac codicis in Alemania impressi [...]. Venice, Melchior Sessa & P. Serena, 1525. 1 vol. in-4° (298 x 212 mm) ; [8], ccxix ff., title-page printed in red and black and within a woodcut border, 38 woodcuts in the text, including maps of Europe and Africa. Later full calf.

The Natural History of Pliny the Elder (AD 23 –79) is more than a natural history: it is an encyclopaedia of all the knowledge of the ancient world. Pliny was a compiler rather than an original thinker, and the importance of this book depends more on his exhaustive reading (he quotes over four hundred authorities, Greek

and Latin) than on his original work. However, Pliny’s work, containing all that was known in ancient Roman times concerning mathematics, physics, cosmography, astronomy, geography, anthropology, physiology, medicine, zoology, botany, commerce and the history of art, remained the major source of knowledge throughout the Middle Ages. In this work Plinius described the location of the “Seres”, going east from the Caspian Sea. He also describes their silk manufacture and reports a curious description of the “Seres” made by an embassy from Taprobane to Emperor Claudius, suggesting he may be referring to the ancient Caucasian populations of the Tarim Basin, such as the Tocharians.

Adams, 1559 ; Sander, 5764.

4. HUTTICH (Johann) & GRYNAEUS (simon) Novus Orbis regionum ac insularum veteribus incognitarum una cum tabula cosmografica et aliquot aliis consimilis argumenti libellis, quorum omnium catalogus sequenti patebit pagina. His accessit copiosus rerum memorabilium index. Basel, Hervagius, 1532. 1 vol. in-folio (300 x 210 mm.) ; [34], 584, [2] pp.; woodcut printer’s device on title-page and last leaf, 2 wood engravings in the text, several woodcut initials. With underlines and some notes of a 16th century hand. Copy without the world map (Brunet IV, 132: “la carte annoncée sur le titre de l’édition de Bâle, 1532, n’est pas toujours dans l’exemplaire”. Eighteenth-century half leather binding.

First edition of this early anthology compiled by the German humanist Johann Huttich (1480?-1544), with a preface by the Basel scholar Simon Grynaeus (1493-1541). The Novus Orbis is the first collection to include many of the greatest voyages and travels to all parts of the globe in recorded history. This collection of travel narratives includes amongst others letters and descriptions of the voyage of Alvise da Cadamosto to Gambia and the Cape Verde Island (1446), the voyage of Vasco da Gama around the Cape of Good Hope to India (1497), the voyage of Pedro Alvares Cabral to Brazil and India (1500), the first three voyages of Christopher Columbus to the Americas (1492-1500), the voyage of Vicente Yanez Pinzon to Brazil and the Amazon (1499), the four voyages of Amerigo Vespucci to the Americas (1497-1505), the travels of Marco Polo to Asia and China (1271-1295), the travels of Nicholas Hayton to Asia and Mongolia (1253-1256), etc.The book is particularly interesting for its publication of Marco Polo’s narrative. The first printed edition of Marco Polo in Latin was a translation made from a Venetian text by the Dominican friar Pipino between 1302 and 1314, printed in Basle in 1483 or 1484; the very first printed version being a German one, published in Nuremberg in 1477. The Latin version contained in the Novus Orbis, while differing from Pipino’s, is based on it. According to Löwendahl (p. 7), the text is very corrupt. It has been regarded as a retranslation from the 1502 Portuguese translation.Apart from Montalboddo’s Paesi novamenti retrovati, the Novus Orbis is the only printed book of the first Asian voyages until the next great collection of voyages and travels, Giovanni Battista Ramusio’s Delle Navigationi et Viaggi (1550-1559).

Brunet IV, 132 ; Sabin 34100.

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5. PICCOLOMINI (EnEa sylvio) La Discrittione de l’Asia, et Europa e l’Historia de le cose memorabili fatte in quelle, con l’aggionta de l’Africa, secondo diversi scrittori… Venice, Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1544. 1 vol. in-8°, ff. 380, [20]incl. final blank. Woodcut printer’s device on title & verso of penultimate leaf. Old vellum.

First edition of the Italian translation by Sebastiano Fausto de Longiano. The text was apparently written in 1461 and was originally published at Venice in Historia rerum ubiqum gestarum (1477). A geographical-historical description of Asia, Europe, and Africa, including the Holy

Land and the earthly paradise. Enea Sylvio Piccolomini (1405-1464), who became pope in 1458 under the name of Pius II, was a prolific author and an able diplomat; he unsuccessfully attempted to unite the European powers in a crusade against the Turks.According to Löwendhal, after Nicolò de Conti, merchant traveller, had returned to Italy in 1441, after twenty five years in the East, he was closely questioned about his travels by Poggio Bracciolini, secretary to Pope Eugène IV. Pius II would have borrowed from Bracciolini’s summary of de Conti’s account of India and Cathay, some passages copied verbatim.

Löwendahl 6.

6. MARCO POLO In cui si tratta le meravigliose cose del mondo per lui vetude del costume di varij paesi, dello stranio vivere di quelli ; della descrittione de diversi animali, e del trovar dell’oro, dell’argento, e delle pietre preciose, cosa non men utile, che bella. Venice, [Mathio Pagan], [1555]. 1 vol. in-12° (152 x 102 mm) ; [112] pp. Later red morocco, gilt spine, gilt edges.

Rare Italian edition of Marco Polo’s famous work, a re-issue of the first Italian edition published in 1496 at Venice.Marco Polo (1254-1324) was about twenty years old when he reached Cathay. Although he knew little or no Chinese, he did speak some of the many languages then used in East Asia, most probably Turkish (in its Coman dialect) as spoken among the Mongols, Arabized Persian, Uighur (Uygur), and perhaps Mongol. He was noticed very favourably by the last great Khan, Kublai Khan (1215-1294), who took great delight in hearing of strange countries and repeatedly sent him on fact-finding missions to distant parts of the Empire. Apart from the missions he undertook for the emperor, Marco Polo may have held other administrative responsibilities, including inspection of the customs duties and revenues collected from the trade in salt and other commodities. After his return to Venice where he was imprisoned in Genoa in 1295, he began dictating his tale with the assistance of Rustichello (or Rusticiano), a fairly well-known writer of romances and a specialist in chivalry. The history of the text itself is characterized by uncertainty. There is no authentic original manuscript, but some 140 different manuscript versions of the text in three manuscript groups, written in a dozen different languages and dialects : an immensely complex and controversial body of material representing one of the most obdurate philological problems inherited from the Middle Ages.

Sabin 44498; Cordier, 1970.

23

7. MARCO POLO La description géographique des provinces & villes plus fameuses de l’Inde Orientale, meurs, loix, & coustumes des habitans d’icelles, mesment de ce qui est soubz la domination du grand Cham Empereur des Tartares. Paris, Iehan Longis, 1556. 1 vol. in-quarto (215 x 154 mm.) ; [10], 123, [1] ff. 19th century full red morocco.

First French edition translated by François Guget, apparently based on the Latin Version in Huttich Novus Orbis regionum (1532). There was one edition but various issues are recorded, giving bookseller as Johan Longis (as here), Vincent Sertenas or Estienne Groulleau. It first appeared in print in German in 1477, followed by a Latin edition in 1483/4, a Portuguese one in 1502 and a Spanish one in 1503. An English edition appeared in 1579. The language in which Marco Polo’s narrative was first written down was probably the Venetian or Lombard dialect. Marco Polo (1254-1324) had an education in different skills in accounting, foreign languages, and knowledge of the Christian Church. His background in business and culture and his love for nature made Marco Polo very observant of humans, animals, and plants.His father, Nicolo, and his uncle, Maffeo, were merchants who began their first eastern journey in 1260. They visited Constantinople and made their way to the domain of the Great Kublai Khan, ruler of China. They are supposed to have arrived in China in 1275. The Emperor became interested in stories of the native land of the merchants; thus, he sent the Polos back to the Pope as his ambassadors with messages of peace and interest in converting areas of China to Christianity.The merchants remained in Venice for two years and decided to keep their promise of return to Kublai Khan. Large profits from trade with these distant parts also prompted the brothers to return. On this journey, they took the seventeen year old Marco Polo with them. After three and a half years of travel, the ambassadors humbly appeared before the Emperor.China had matured in the arts, both fine and practical, beyond anything found in Europe. Literature was greatly respected. Paper had already been invented; books of philosophy, religion, and politics could be found and a large Encyclopedia had been printed under the supervision of the Emperor. Mechanical devices were not lacking and paper money was the accepted currency in many sections of the Empire. It was in this world of advanced wonders that Marco Polo resided for many years.Upon his return to Italy, Marco Polo told of his findings of jade, porcelain, silk, ivory, and other riches of Asia. He described the festival of the Emperor’s birthday in which everything from clothing to ornaments were laced in gold. He also explained how he saw

people using black stones for fuel (later known as coal). Unfortunately, all his stories and details of the unimaginable were rejected, and Marco Polo became the “man of a million lies.”After he retrieved his notes from China, Marco Polo transformed his travels into manuscript form. His work has been criticized because he did not include fundamentals of Chinese life as tea, foot-binding, or even the Great Wall. He was frank, unpoetic in imagination and vision, and constantly spoke of trade, money, risks, and profits (as an ordinary merchant would do). However, he wrote in incredible detail of the birds animals, plants, and other aspects of nature.When he was near death, a priest entered his room and asked him if he wanted to admit his stories were false. Instead, Marco Polo replied, “I do not tell half of what I saw because no one would have believed me.”

Cordier, BS, 1977-78 ; Brunet, 426-27 ; Löwendahl, 9.

8. RAMUSIO (Giovanni Battista) Secondo volume delle navigationi et viaggi nel quale si contengono l’Historia delle cose de Tartari, & diversi fatti de loro Imperatori. Venice, Giunti 1583. 2 parts in 1 vol. in-folio (320 x 230 mm) ; 18, [10], 256, 90 ff. Contemporary vellum, gilt lozenge centerpiece and double gilt frames on both covers.

Third edition of the second volume of Ramusio’s collection of world voyages (in three volumes). The first edition of the first volume originally appeared in 1550, followed by the second volume in 1558, and the third in 1556. Volume 2 deals with Asia and includes an early and important text in Italian of Marco Polo. It also includes travel to China, Persia, Armenia and other Middle Eastern countries.Ramusio’s undertaking is a fundamental general compilation of narratives of the European exploration of the rest of the world. Ramusio (1485-1557), public servant of the Venetian republic, was the first genuine scholar to produce a travel collection, translating the documents directly from the original sources whenever possible. His purpose in compiling it was in line with 16th-century Italian humanism: the dissemination of increasingly rare historical texts in accurate editions in the vernacular, aiming for historical knowledge rather than commercial reconnaissance.This second volume includes substantial information on Asia, the medieval overland travels as well as the voyages of discovery. It describes in particular the journeys of Marco Polo, Varthema’s eastern travels, and Persian voyages. This is the first edition of the second volume to include an account of Sebastian Cabot. Six chapters are translated into Italian from Barros, and most importantly, is the material on China in volume 2 : here Marco Polo occupies the place of

honor at the beginning of the volume. In his preface to his travels, Ramusio remarks that, though many people had once been dubious about the veracity of Polo’s stories, he certainly did not report marvels any more incredible than the tales of the New World which were circulating in the sixteenth century. Ramusio clearly is inclined to accept Polo at face value. He even prepared a table of latitudes and longitudes from the geography of Abufalda Ismael to identify as closely as possible the places in Asia mentioned by Polo.The Ramusio text of Marco Polo retains many original features, which makes it one of the three basic versions used for the composite text of the best English translation by A.C. Moule (1938).From John Locke to Henry Harrisse, scholars and bibliographers have praised Ramusio for his choice of material, his care and accuracy in presenting it, and his assiduous sorting of the evidence of the new discoveries.

Borba de Moraes, pp. 698-99 ; Sabin, 67732, 67738, 67741 ; Löwendahl, 10

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9. GONZALES dE MENDOZA (Juan) Dell'Historia della China. Descritta nella lingua spagnuola, dal P. Maestro Giovanni Gonzalez di Mendoza, dell'Ord. di S. Agostino. Et tradotta nell'italiana dal Magn. M. Francesco Avanzo, cittadino originario di Venezia. Parti due, divise in tre libri, & in tre viaggi, fatti in quei paesi dai Padri Agostiniani, & Francescani. Doue si descriue il sito, & lo stato di quel gran Regno, & si tratta della religione, de i costumi, & della disposition de' suoi popoli, & d'altri luochi più conosciuti del mondo nuovo. Venetia, Andrea Muschio, 1586. 1 vol. in-8º (160 x 110 mm.) ; [34], 462, [42] pp., woodcut title vignette and decorative initials. Old vellum-backed calf, covered on back and sides with 19th century marbled calf.

First Venetian edition of Gonzales’ Historia, translated by Francesco Avanzo. The first edition was published in Spanish in Rome in 1585. It was subsequently translated into French, Latin, Italian and German and became one of the outstanding bestsellers of the 16th century.

In 1580, Juan Gonzales de Mendoza (1545-1618), an Augustinian monk, was sent by Philippe II on an embassy to the Emperor of China, with the assignment to bring home extensive information on the population, customs, politics, agriculture, climate, commerce, ways of travelling and the culture. He in fact never stayed in China. The main value of his work lies in the eyewitness accounts which he used, principally those of the Portuguese Dominican friars, Gaspar da Cruz (whose book was itself based on the narrative of Galeote Pereira who had been prisoner in South China from 1549 to 1552) and Bernardino Escalantes and of the Augustinian friar Martín de Rada. Mendoza’s work became the standard authority at the time and appears as one of the first general histories and descriptions of China: “The first, serious survey of China, it ran some 33 editions in Western Europe between 1585 and 1613. Its influence can be imagined” (Lust).

Cordier, BS, 10-11 ; Lust, 23 ; Adams, G-868 ; Wagner (1924), 7, G; Löwendahl, 13, 18-23, 26, 30, 34, 36.

10. GONZALES dE MENDOZA (Juan) Histoire du Grand Royaume de la Chine, situé aux Indes Orientales, divisée en deux parties. Contenant en la première, la situation, antiquité, fertilité, religion, cérémonies, sacrifices, rois, magistrats, mœurs, us, & autres choses mémorables dudit Royaume. Et en la seconde, trois voyages faits vers iceluy en l’an 1577, 1579 & 1581 […]. Paris, Jérémie Perrier, 1588. 2 parts in 1 vol. in-8° (172 x 109 mm.) ; [12], 112, 1-8, 122-323, [23] ff. Contemporary Parisian gold-tooled brown morocco, on both covers little oval medallions alternatively gilt coverded with the letters GR and flowers, central oval surrounded by leafy sprays, flat spine decorated with palm fronds on a background of little flowers, gilt edges.

First French edition of this general description of China, in an exceptional morocco binding attributed to Clovis Eve. The very first edition, in Spanish, was printed in Rome in 1585, soon followed with translations in Latin, French, German, Italian and English.

This work presents an idealized vision of China considered as a “wise and cautious” nation, as the humanists and intellectuals of the Renaissance liked to imagine it at that time.The French translation of Mendoza’s work was done by the French philosopher Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592) and the Spanish translation by the scholar Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609). Both praised the superiority of China over the injustice and cruelty reigning in France during the French wars of Religion (1562 - 1598). From the 16th century, humanists’ considerations for China reveal an emerging sinophilie in Europe.Gonzales’ book was apparently the first published work to contain Chinese characters.

Alden, 600/48; Sabin, 32009; Atkinson, 409.

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11. MAFFEI (Giovanni-PiEtro) Historiarum Indicarum libri xvi. Selectarum item ex India epistolarum eodem interprete libri iv. Accessit Ignatii Loiolae vita postremo recognita. Florence, Filippo Giunti, 1588. 1 vol. in-folio (320 x 220 mm.) ; [4], 570, [30] pp. ; numerous large ornamental woodcut initials. Contemporary vellum. Ex-dono of Callisto Marini, prefect of the Vatican Secret Archives, (1782-1822).

First edition of this important account of Portuguese

discoveries and missionary work in India, the East Indies,

Persia, Japan, China, Brazil and other parts of America. Ten

Latin editions, two in Italian and two in French appeared

before 1621.

The latinist and humanist Giovanni Pietro Maffei (c.1533-

1603) who entered the Jesuit Society in 1565, was delegated to prepare an official history of the Jesuit missions in Asia. He spent twelve years in Lisbon composing his work from original sources (Jesuit letters). In 1588 his Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI was published at Florence and shortly thereafter reissued at Venice. This elegant history was published several times in Latin and was translated into Italian and French. Besides providing a systematic history of the missions, Maffei's work laid to rest many of the accusations that were then being made about the falsities and exaggerations being spread by the letterbooks. Book VI specially deals with China and contains the first description of tea by an European author.

Cordier, BS 781-82; De Backer & Sommervogel, 5, col. 298; Löwendahl, 24.

12. BOTERO (Giovanni) Relationi universali, divise in quattro parti […]. Venice, Giorgio Angelieri, 1599. 4 parts in 1 vol. in-8° (193 x 145 mm.) : [32], 240, 80, [12], 152, 183, [25], 79, [2], 243-256 pp., with 109 engraved maps. Later half vellum, red mottled edges.

Venetian edition of this immensely popular work, which was reprinted many times (the first two volumes originally appeared at Rome in 1591-92).The Italian Giovanni Botero (1544–1617), Jesuit and political theorist, was tutor and adviser at the Turin court of Carlo Emanuele I, Duke of Savoy. He became especially famous as one of the greatest economists of the 16th century. He came to prominence with his treatise Della ragion di stato (1589), in which, attacking Machiavelli, he argued that effective government could be based on Christian principles. With Cause della grandezza e magnificenza delle città (1588), he broke new ground with its analysis of factors determining the growth and prosperity of cities.

In this present work, Botero described “Tartaria” including “Cataio” and “China” (pp. 120-124). « Botero’s knowledge of China, which he had previously derived exclusively from Barros, Mendoza, and the Jesuit letterbooks, becomes more realistic and critical in the Relazioni, possibily because of the new information and perspective which he derived from the Jesuits, especially Maffei and Michele Ruggiero » (Donald F. Lach, Asia in the making of Europe, 1965-1977).

Löwendahl, 38.

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13. CARVALHO (valEntim) Lettre de la Chine de l'an 1601, escrite par le P. Valentin Caruaglio, Recteur du Collège de Macao, au T.R.P. Claude Aquaviva, Général de la Compagnie de Jésus. Paris, Claude Chappelet, 1605. 1 vol. in-12° (140 x 84 mm.): 53 pp. Modern marbled paper board, gilt title on spine.

First French edition of this “Annual Letter” for 1601 dealing with the Jesuit activities in the interior of China. The “Annual Letter” was traditionally written by the Italian Jesuit Francesco Pasio (1554-1612). However, because of Pasio’s “Annual Letter” for 1600 was lost in transit to Europe, a “supplement” to that document (first published at Rome in 1603) was prepared by Valentim Carvalho.Valentim Carvalho (1559-1631) was rector of the Jesuit College at Macao and became in 1609 Provincial for Japan and China.He protested against the missionaries’ tactic of teaching the Chinese science in order to attract their interest - a practice first recommended by Valignano and instituted by Ricci - and doubted that mathematics, astronomy, and the other sciences were proper means for propagating the faith.

Cordier, BS, 800-1.

14. RICCI (MattEo) & TRIGAULT (nicolas) Histoire de l'expédition chrestienne au Royaume de la Chine, entreprinse par les Pères de la Compagnie de Iesus […] tirée des mémoires du R.P. Matthieu Ricci, par le R.P. Nicolas Trigault […] et nouvellement traduite en françois par le S.D.F. de Riquebourg-Trigault. Lille, Pierre de Rache, 1617. 1 vol. in-quarto (200 x 155 mm.): [12], 559, [5] pp. Contemporary calf, spine ribbed with blind-stamped ornaments in the compartments, blind-stamped fillet borders on sides with large blind-stamped crowned standing lion in center, green painted edges, with green ties.

Second French edition of De christiana expeditione apud Sinas suscepta ab Societate Jesu (1615), the most influential description of China to appear during the first half of the 17th century. This French translation was made by Trigault’s nephew, Riquebourg-Trigault, the physician of Willem of Orange.

When the pioneer Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) arrived in China in 1582, he soon realised that the only way to convert the Chinese was to adapt as much as possible to Chinese life. He learned the Chinese language and took a Chinese name. He also sought the friendship of the Confucian Chinese scholars and studied Chinese literature and science. So he obtained the official permission to settle near Canton, and finally after some more settlements in Nanchang (1595), and in Nanking (1599), he received Imperial permission to establish a post in Peking (1610). During all that time Ricci kept a journal, presenting a history of the Jesuit mission in China from its beginning in 1582 to his death in 1610, the same year the Flemish Jesuit Nicolas Trigault (1577-1628) arrived at Peking.Trigault, the procurator of the Jesuits’ China mission, translated and augmented the journal of Ricci, aiming to elicit support

31

the globe. It reopened the door to China, which was first opened by Marco Polo, three centuries before Ricci’s and Trigault’s account of China and was undoubtedly most influential on cultural life and philosophical thought in Europe, opening up a new, mysterious and until then virtually unknown world. This influence is confirmed by the subsequent success of the book. The original Latin edition was reprinted in 1616, 1617 and 1623. The first French version appeared in Lyon in 1616, followed by this version in 1617 and another one in 1623. A German edition was published in Augsburg in 1617. A Spanish edition appeared in Seville and Lima in 1627. An Italian translation was published in Naples in 1622 and an abridged English edition appeared in 1625.

Chadenat I, 197; Cordier, BS, 809-810; De Backer-Sommervogel, VIII, 240; Lust 839, Löwendahl, 54.

for the mission. This work is therefore essentially a translation of Ricci’s Journal which Trigault did when he returned to Europe in 1613. Trigault, however, did not merely translate the journal; he omitted or changed many passages, rearranged its parts, and added material from other Chinese missionaries to complete the story and to depict China and the Jesuit mission in a more favorable light. The resulting volume contains not only a history of the Jesuit mission but also includes a wealth of information about China in the chapters describing Chinese geography, people, laws, government, religion, learning, commerce and the like. The publication of Trigault’s book, first published in Latin in Augsburg in 1615, took Europe by surprise. Suddenly, Europe became aware for the first time of the existence of another highly civilized part of

15. MARTINI (martino) De Bello Tartarico Historia; in qua, quo pacto Tartari hac nostra aetate Sinicum Imperium invaserint, ac fere totum occuparint, narratur; eorumque mores breviter describuntur […]. Antwerp, Balthazar Moretus, 1654. 1 vol. in-8° (118 x 76 mm.): 167 pp., 1 engraved map “Situs provinciarum Imperii Sinici 1654”. Contemporary vellum.

First edition of this important and extremely popular

work on the history of China. Many editions followed,

not only in the original Latin but also in English

(1654), German (1654), Italian (1654), Dutch (1654

and 1655), French (1654 and 1667), Spanish (1655)

and Portuguese (1657), testifying of the enormous

interest for China all over Europe and the impact the

book had on the European image and conceptions of

the Empire.

The Jesuit Martino Martini (1614-1661) was a

missionary, cartographer and historian, mainly

working on Imperial China. He entered the College of

Rome where he studied mathematics with Athanasius

Kircher. He embarked for the Indies in 1640 with

Hieronimo Lobo and twenty-one other missionaries,

arriving at Goa in November. He entered China in

1643 at Zhejiang during a time of internal unrest and

upheaval. He was, however, able to travel throughout

the country as far north as the Great Wall, collecting

materials for his survey of China and in so doing

determined the astronomical position of many towns

and geographical features.

He returned to Hangzhou in 1646, founded a new

church at Lanxi, remaining there for four years until

he chose to return to Rome on behalf of the Mission.

On the way back, his ship was blown off course and

Martini was forced to land in Norway. His travels to

Rome then continued via Amsterdam where he was

able to assist with the production of his Atlas Sinensis at

the Blaeu establishment. Pressed to proceed to Rome,

he eventually arrived there in 1654. Here, he conferred

with the College of Cardinals on the question of

Chinese Rites, and after lengthy discussions, obtained

a favourable decree from Alexander VII in 1656. He

returned to China in 1657, remaining there until his

death in Hangzhou in 1661.

De Bello Tartarico Historia is considered important

in Chinese history, as Martini was an eyewitness to

and lived through the frightful occurrences which

brought about the violent overthrow of the ancient

Ming dynasty in the years 1643-44.

Cordier, BS, 819-20 ; Lust, 440 ; De Backer & Sommervogel, 5, Col. 647; Löwendahl, 107.

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16. BLAEU (Joan) / MARTINI (Martino) Novus Atlas Sinensis a Martino Martinus, Soc. Iesu, descriptus et Serenmo. Archiduci Leopoldo Guilielmo Austriaco dedicatus. Amsterdam, Joan Blaeu, 1655. 1 vol. in-folio (518 x 358 mm.): [18], 171, [25], xii, 33, [5] pp., 1 frontispiece, 17 double-page hand-coloured maps. Text and maps in Latin with Latinised Chinese place names. Contemporary full vellum.

First Latin edition of this first European atlas on China published by Joan Blaeu (1596-1673). Editions in Dutch and French were published in 1655 or 1656, a German edition in 1656 and a Spanish edition in 1658 or 1659. It was also published as part VI of Blaeu's Theatrum orbis terrarium.This atlas contains maps of China and its provinces including Korea and 1 map of Japan. It consists, besides the text, of a general map of China, 15 maps of individual Chinese provinces, and a general map of Japan. The large maps of China also include Japan and Indochina. Maps of the provinces : Chekiang, Fokien, Honan, Huquang, Iunnan, Kiangsi, Nanking, Pecheli, Quangsi, Quantung, Queicheu, Suchuen, Xansi, Xantung, Xensi.

The cartography is based on a European revision of Ming surveys. A list of place names is included giving their longitude and latitude in degrees and minutes. The text discusses various aspects of Chinese life and customs. As was usual with Blaeu's publications, it was offered for sale both plain and coloured. The Atlas Sinensis, apart from the technical excellence of its production, is important as being the first European atlas of China. It remained the standard geographical work on that country till the publication in 1737 of D'Anville's Atlas de la Chine. The maps were drawn by the Jesuit cartographer Martino Martini (1614-1661). A highly illustrated title page shows a man holding open a gate with guilded hinges that opens onto a landscape supposedly of China. On the exposed side of the gate is the bibliographic description of the atlas.

Cordier, BS, 182 ; Lust, 160, 439.

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17. NIEUHOFF (Johan) L'ambassade de la Compagnie Orientale des Provinces Unies vers l'Empereur de la Chine; ou Grand Cam de Tartarie, faite par les Sieurs Pierre de Goyer & Jacob de Keyser, illustrée d’une tres-exacte descritption des villes, bourgs, villages, ports de mers, & autres lieux plus considerables de la Chine […]. Mis en françois par Jean Le Carpentier. Leyde, Jacob de Meurs, 1665. 2 parts in 1 vol. in-folio (369 x 242 mm.): [22], 290, [2] 134, [2] pp. ; engraved allegorical frontispiece, title printed in red and black with engraved vignette, 1 folding map, 1 engraved portrait, 34 folding engraved views and plans, 110 engraved illustrations in text. Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt in compartments, red title label.

First French edition translated by Jean Le Carpentier from the original Dutch edition, published by Jacob de Meurs in the same year.Johan Nieuhoff (1618-1672) came into the service of the VOC (Dutch East India Company) after having travelled in the service of the Dutch West Indian Company through the West Indies and Brazil, from 1640-1649. After two years travelling through the East-Indies, he was sent on the first Dutch Embassy to the Emperor of China in the years 1655-1657.

In the middle of the 17th century, the Dutchmen were at the height of their power and wanted to gain access to the China Trade. This embassy was Europe's first attempt to open China to the west. Nieuhof went to Nanking and Peking under the command of Pieter van Goyer and Jacob Keyzer. A number of scientists studying the flora and fauna along the route participated in the expedition. Nieuhoff accompanied the mission from Canton to the court in Peking to ask for an expansion of trade (without much success) and made drawings during his travel which were used to make the first engravings of China to be published in England.This early account is the record of the Dutch Embassy's efforts in China and contains an important description of China ; the engravings after Nieuhoff 's accurate drawings had a lasting influence on the subsequent illustrated works on China. The second part Description générale de l’Empire de la Chine by Le Carpentier includes beautiful plates depicting all of the major cities, the flora and fauna, manners, dress and curiosities of China.This work became quickly very popular and was translated in most European languages.

Cordier, BS, 2345-46 ; Lust, 534; Löwendahl, 127

37

39

18. RHODES (alExandrE dE) Divers voiages du P. Alexandre de Rhodes en la Chine, & autres Roiaumes de l'Orient, avec son retour en Europe par la Perse & l’Arménie. De tout divisé en trois parties. Paris, Sebastien Mabre-Cramoisy, 1666. 1 vol. in-quarto (240 x 185 mm.): [8], 342, [2] pp., title-page with engraved vignette, tail-pieces. Later half red morocco with gilt spine.

Second edition of Divers voyages et missions originaly published in 1653.The French Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes (1591-1660) entered the novitiate of the Society of Jesus at Rome in 1612 with the intention of devoting his life to the conversion of infidels. He took part in the missions of the East Indies ; in 1619, he went to Indochina to establish a mission and was very successful. He later estimated that he had converted some 6,700 Vietnamese to the Roman

Catholic faith. When in 1630 persecution forced him to leave the country, he fled to Macao, where he spent ten years as a professor of philosophy, making occasional excursions to Canton (Guangzhou). He returned to southern Vietnam in 1640 and stayed there until 1646, when he was condemned to death; his sentence, however, was commuted to permanent exile. Rhodes returned to Rome via Persia in 1646.

Cordier, BS, 2080-81.

41

19. SEMEDO (AlvarEz) Histoire universelle de la Chine, avec l'Histoire de la guerre des Tartares, contenant les révolutions arrivées en ce grand Royaume, depuis quarante ans : par le P. Martin Martini. Traduites nouvellement en françois. Lyon, Jérôme Prost, 1667. Two parts in 1 vol. in-quarto (232 x 172 mm.): [12], 458, [2] pp. ; title-page with engraved vignette. Marbled paper covered boards, calf spine with five raised bands.

French version of Semedo’s Relatione della grande monarchia della Cina (1643) and Martini’s De bello Tartarico historia (1654).Alvarez Semedo (1586-1658) was the Portuguese Procurador General for China. He first arrived in China in 1613. Unlike other Jesuits, he remained in the south of China except for a visit to Xi’an in 1625, where he was the first European to examine the newly discovered Nestorian Tablet which had remained buried for centuries. In 1640 he wrote a detailed report in Italian to publicize the Jesuit mission in China. It is from this rare book that can be

obtained very important information about Semedo’s fascinating account on other important religions: the Muslim and Jewish communities in Ming dynasty in China. Semedo was the first European to describe in Europe the preparation and benefits of tea as a beverage. He wrote his original manuscript in Goa in 1638. It was first published in Spanish in 1642 by Manuel de Faria y Sousa.

Martino Martini (1614-1661), an Italian Jesuit, also spent many years in China. His History was the first detailed information and the best-known description of the Manchu conquest available to Europeans during the seventeenth century. Martini’s History was translated from Latin by Gilbert Girault and was first published separately in 1654.This work contains a general description of Chinese society (Part I) and deals with the foreign missions (part II) and with the Manchu campaigns (part III).

The French translation of both texts is the work of Louis Coulon.

Cordier, BS, 24 ; Lust, 71/443; Löwendahl, 134.

20. KIRCHER (athanasius) Toonneel van China, door veel, zo geestelijke als werreltlijke, geheugteekenen, verscheide vertoningen van de natuur en kunst, en blijken van veel andere gedenkwaerdige dingen, geopent en verheerlykt […]. Amsterdam, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, 1668. 1 vol. in-folio (375 x 253 mm.): [12], 286, [10] pp. ; 1 engraved frontispiece, 1 engraved titelpage, 60 illustrations in the text and 24 engraved plates (3 folding) including maps of China and Asia, Oriental script specimina (Chinese, Syriac), gods, dresses, animals, etc. Contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments.

First Dutch edition of this monumental work on China translated by J.H. Glazemaker (from the original 1667 Latin edition China Monumentis Illustrata), and which was also translated in French (1667) and English (1669).Gathering his work from other members of the Society of Jesuits, such as Michal Boym and Martino Martini, the German Jesuit and scholar Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680) – the leading sinologist of this time – wrote one of the century’s most influential treatises on China. His primary purpose was to establish the authenticity of the Nestorian monument discovered in Sian, and to that end he produced in print the original Chinese and Syriac inscriptions on the monument, the Chinese text in romanization, and finally a Latin translation and his explanation of the Chinese and Syriac texts. In addition, Kircher included a sizable description of China and other places in Asia. The book includes several chapters on government, customs, geography, fauna, flora, and mechanical arts of China, and a very interesting scholarly discussion of the Chinese language. There is also a long

Chinese-Latin dictionary. Kircher’s volume also contains several beautiful pictures taken from Chinese and Mughal originals, which Grueber had brought back to Europe with him in 1664. Although the book was not the product of Kircher’s own experience in China, it was frequently used or cited as a source of information by later writers.

Cordier, BS, 26. De Backer / Sommervogel IV, 1064, Chadenat, 1393; Löwendahl, 132, 133, 136, 140, 146.

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21. DAPPER (olfErt) Gedenkwaerdig bedryf der Nederlandsche Oost-Indische maetschappye, op de kuste en in het Keizerrijk van Taising of Sina: behelzende het tweede gezandschap aen den Onder-koning Singlamong en Veldheer Taising Lipoui; door Jan van Kampen en Konstantyn Nobel: vervolgt met een verhael van het voorgevallen des jaers zestien hondert drie en vier en zestig, op de kuste van Sina, en ontrent d’eilanden Tayowan, Formosa, Ay en Quemuy, onder ‘t gezag van Balthasar Bort: en het derde gezandschap aen Konchy, Tartarsche Keizer van Sina en Oost-Tartarye: onder beleit van zijne Ed. Pieter van Hoorn: beneffens een beschryving van geheel Sina. Amsterdam, Jacob Van Meurs, 1670. 2 parts in 1 vol. in-folio (318 x 216 mm.): [8], 504, [6], [2], 263, [1] pp. (irregular pagination); 1 folded engraved map, 38 engraved plates and views (folding, double-page or full-page plates) and 57 text engravings. Contemporary blind-stamped vellum.

First edition of Dapper’s famous description of China, the second part here in second issue with the four Chinese plates indexed. The first part contains the account of Pieter van Hoorn’s mission to China on behalf of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie) in 1662-1663. Negotiations were carried out from Southeast China, during which Vice-Admiral Jan van Kampen and Konstantijn Nobel were sent on a mission to the Fukien authorities, here called the Second Embassy to the Fukien “vice-roy” Singlamong. Included is the account of the exploration voyage which followed

in the years 1663-1664 by this part of the fleet onder command of Balthasar Bort along the coasts of Taiwan, Formosa, Ay and Quemuy. Meanwhile Pieter van Hoorn had proceeded to the Chinese Court where he was splendidly received by the Chinese Emperor, here called the Third Embassy to Konchy, the then reigning Tartarian Chinese Emperor. Added as a second part is a complete description of China, its geography, religion, natural history, art and customs.Unsurpassed in detail, illustration, influence and popularity, this description covers every imaginable aspect of China as far as it was then known, and the nearly 100 engravings cover topography, ethnology, religion, costumes, language, writing, zoology, botany and more. Originally written in Dutch, it was translated into English and published under the name of John Ogilby. Although Dapper (1636-1689) never travelled himself, he read many languages, had first hand access to many of the Dutch East India employees who went on these historic trade missions and numerous unpublished manuscripts when creating this magnificent work.As a result his book contains much valuable new material. No book spoke more to the imagination of the seventeenth-century Europe concerning the exotic lands of the Far East, and it did much to establish the Western view of China among both scholars and the general public.

Cordier, BS, 2348 ; Tiele 304 ; Lust 507, Löwendahl, 145.

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22. GRESLON (adriEn) Histoire de la Chine sous la domination des Tartares. Où l’on verra les choses les plus remarquables qui sont arrivées dans ce grand Empire, depuis l’année 1651 qu’ils ont achevé de le conquerir, jusqu’en 1669. Paris, Jean Henault, 1671. 1 vol. in-8°(171 x 110 mm.): xvi, 352 pp. ; large woodcut vignette on title page. Contemporary limp vellum.

First edition. The French Jesuit missionary Adrien Greslon (1618-1696) was sent to China in 1657 and, after learning the Chinese and Manchu languages, went to the Province of Kiang-si, which he describes as a veritable Garden of Eden, where he remained, engaged in his missionary labours, until 1670, before returning to France.This work contains a history of the conquest of China by the Manchus in 1651 and a description of the Manchu Empire up to 1669.The map is copied from that of Martino Martini (1654).

Cordier, BS, 628; De Backer & Sommervogel, 1738-39; Löwendahl, 151.

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23. AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS Les dix-huit livres qui nous restent des xxxi de l’Histoire qu’avait composez Ammian Marcellin, depuis l’an de Notre Seigneur 354 iusques en 378 qui font en tout 24 ans. Pour l’usage des gens de guerre, & de tous ceux qui aiment les veritez de l’Histoire. Paris, Claude Barbin, 1672. 3 vols. in-12°(172 x 98 mm.) : [24], 600 pp. ; 601-1238 pp. ; 1239-1677, [3] pp. Contemporary calf with gilt decorated covers, gilt spine.

First French edition of Ammianus Marcellinus’ work, who was a 4th-century Roman historian. He wrote a History of the Roman Empire from the accession of Nerva (96) to the death of Valens at the Battle of Adrianople (378), thus forming a possible continuation of the work of Tacitus. Res Gestae Libri XXXI was originally in thirty-one books. The surviving eighteen books cover the period from 353 to 378. This work is the second-to-last major historical account written during Antiquity (the last was written by Procopius).The very name of the Great Silk Road appeared for the first time in Marcellinus’ work. The opening of this famous route, however, is usually referred to as taking place in the

second century B.C, when the Chinese Emperor sent Zhang Qian on an embassy to the West.Marcellinus locates the Seres country East and beyond the two Scythia. He describes the people as follows: « Les Sères, de toutes les races d’hommes la plus paisible, sont absolument étrangers à la guerre et à l’usage des armes. Le repos est ce qu’ils aiment par-dessus tout ; aussi sont-ils des voisins très commodes. Chez eux le ciel est pur, le climat doux et sain, l’haleine des vents constamment tempérée. Le pays est boisé mais sans épaisses forêts. On y recueille sur les arbres, en humectant leurs feuilles à plusieurs reprises, une espèce de duvet d’une mollesse et d’une ténuité extrême, que l’on file ensuite et qui devient la soie, ce tissu réservé autrefois aux classes élevées et que tout le monde porte aujourd’hui. Les Sères ont si peu de besoin, la tranquillité leur est si chère, qu’ils évitent tout contact avec les autres peuples. Des marchands étrangers passent-ils le fleuve pour demander du fil de soie ou tout autre produit du sol, pas un mot ne s’échange, le prix se fait à première vue. Les habitants sont si simples dans leurs goûts, qu’en livrant leurs produits, ils n’appellent en retour aucun produit étranger » (book XXIII, towards the end).

M. Reinaud, Relations politiques et commerciales de l’Empire Romain avec l’Asie Orientale, Paris, Imprimerie Impériale, 1863, pp. 192-193.

24. ROUGEMONT (françois dE) Historia Tartaro-Sinica nova. Louvain, M. Hullegaerde, 1673. 1 vol. in-8° (158 x 100 mm.): [16], 328 pp. with 1 folding engraved map (“Situs Provinciarum Imperii Sinici. M.DC.LIV.”). Contemporary vellum.

First edition of the original Latin version.The Dutch Jesuit François de Rougemont (1624-1676) entered the Society of Jesus in 1641 and departed for China, together with Prosper Intorcetta in 1659. After arriving in Macao in July 1658, he labored in the military garnison at Soochow (Suzhou), Kiangsu (Jiangsu), where he made a number of converts.To develop the Christian community in Ch'ang-shu (Changshu), he established fourteen congregations headed by scholarly leaders. During the persecution of 1664 to 1671, de Rougemont was exiled to Canton (Guangzhou), where he participated in a conference dealing with missionary methods. Later he became pas-tor for fourteen churches and twenty-one chapels, which he administered with the assistance of lay brothers.

Besides several catechisms in Chinese, de Rougemont wrote an important essay on the need for an indigenous clergy and an account of his exile in Canton. This book reconstructs the life of a Jesuit missionary in a small inland residence in China. The map is dated 1654 and is the work of Martino Martini.

Cordier, BS, 628; Lust, 452; De Backer & Sommervogel, VII, 230-231; Löwendahl, 791.

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25. [VERBIEST (FErdinand)] Voyages de l'Empereur de la Chine dans la Tartarie, ausquels on a joint une nouvelle decouverte au Mexique. Paris, Estienne Michallet, 1685. 1 vol. in-12° (150 x 80 mm.) : [8], 110 pp.; woodcut initials, head- and tail-pieces. Recent half calf with gilt spine.

Very rare first edition of this interesting account of Ferdinand Verbiest, a Belgian Jesuit famous in both Europe and China. Ferdinand Verbiest (1623-1688) entered the Society of Jesus in 1641. In 1660, he was sent to Beijing to assist the German Jesuit missionary Johan Adam Schall, in the opening of Jesuit missions in China, and he became a tutor and advisor to emperor Kangxi. Verbiest introduced astronomy, a modern perpetual calendar, and the modern concept of world cartography to China. He also constructed an observatory in Beijing. He accumulated so much credit with the Emperor Kangxi that he was allowed freedoms and privileges previously unheard of for a Christian in China. Although his position as a mandarin of the emperors was widely criticized, he received papal support in 1681, and accompanied Emperor Kangxi to Mongolia in 1682. It was through Verbiest’s tremendous standing with the emperor that the Christian religion was able to gain a substantial foothold in China during his ministry. Ferdinand Verbiest died in Beijing in 1688 and was buried with great ceremony.This work treats of two journeys Verbiest made with the Emperor of China into the Eastern and the Western Tartary in 1682 and 1683.The second part of the volume is the account of Isidro de Atondo y Antillón’s failed attempt to establish a Spanish colony in California at the Bay of La Paz, where California is depicted as a paradise ripe for conversion to Christianity.

Cordier, BS, 635; Hill, 1771 ; Sabin, 98928.

26. COUPLET (PhiliPPE) Histoire d'une dame chrétienne de la Chine où par occasion les usages de ces peuples, l'établissement de la religion, les manières des missionnaires, & les exercices de piété des nouveaux Chrétiens sont expliquez. Paris, Estienne Michallet, 1688. – (Bound with:) Lettre d’un docteur en théologie à un missionnaire de la Chine. Paris, 1686-1687. 2 works in 1 vol. in-12° (160 x 95 mm.): [8], 153 pp., [4], 48, [2] pp. ; 1 portrait frontispiece of Candida Xu, 1 folding plate. Contemporary calf with spine gilt in compartments.

First edition translated from Couplet’s Latin manuscript by Pierre Joseph d’Orléans or by Couplet himself. Philippe Couplet (1622-1693), a Belgian Jesuit, was active in China in the 17th century. He initially left for China in 1656 with Ferdinand Verbiest and took various responsibilities throughout China, but had to take refuge in Canton (Guangzhou) during the persecution of 1665. He remained there until 1670. Elected procurator of the mission, he left for Rome in 1681 to seek permission for missionaries to celebrate the liturgy in Chinese.

In 1687, leading a group of Jesuits (Prospero Intorcetta, Christian Herdritch, and François de Rougemont), Couplet published the first known Western translation of a Chinese literary work Confucius Sinarum Philosophus ("Confucius, Philosopher of the Chinese").The work, which was first edited in France, probably from an unpublished Latin manuscript, Historia nobilis feminae Candidae Hiu, has also been translated into Spanish (1691), Flemish (1694), Italian (1700) and Chinese (1965). Couplet honors Candida Xu (1607-1680), a grand-daughter of Xu Guangqi, a prominent official of the late Ming Dynasty and one of the best-known early Chinese converts to Christianity. The purpose of Couplet’s biography was to inspire support for the Chinese mission and to generate increased devotion among Catholic women.

Cordier, BS, 832-33 ; Barbier, 13539 ; Marsden, 1688; Löwendahl, 201, 209.

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late in Jesuit training. He arrived in Hangchow in 1640 and was sent to Ch’engtu in the inland province of Szechwan, where he began a close association with the senior Father Lodovico Buglio (1606-1682). Under Buglio’s guidance, Magalhães applied himself to the study of Chinese. He then settled in Peking in 1648 and remained at the Emperor’s Palace until his death.The Portuguese original manuscript Doze excellencias da China (1668) was brought back to Rome by Father Philippe Couplet in 1688 and presented to the Cardinal d’Estrée, to whom this edition is dedicated and who himself commissioned the translation and conveyed it to Claude Bernou for editing and translating into the French.The Cardinal was particularly interested in Beijing which explains the presence of the plan of the city.

Cordier, BS, 36 ; Lust, 57; De Backer & Sommervogel, V, 308; Löwendahl, 189.

27. MAGALHÃES (GaBriEl dE) Nouvelle relation de la Chine, contenant la description des particularitez les plus considérables de ce grand Empire. […] Traduite du Portugais en François par le Sr B. Paris, Claude Barbin, 1688. 1 vol. in-quarto (245 x 195 mm.): [28], 385, [12] pp., 1 large engraved folding plan of Beijing. Contemporary French calf, gilt spine.

First French edition of this popular work which was also published in English in the same year, translated by John Ogilby.The Portuguese Jesuit Gabriel de Magalhães (1610-1677) was born into the family of the eminent explorer Magallan (1470-1521). Whether the explorer’s spirit still ran in his blood or whether he was influenced by social currents at that time in Portugal, Magalhães was led to enter the Jesuit Order where he requested service in the East. He reached Goa in 1634 where he taught rhetoric and studied theology, which comes

28. ORLEANS (PiErrE JosEPh d') Histoire des deux conquerans Tartares qui ont subjugué la Chine. Paris, Claude Barbin, 1688. 1 vol. in-8° (190 x 118 mm.): [32], 319, 37 pp. Contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments with red title label.

First edition of this “historical” work written by Pierre Joseph d’Orléans (1641-1698), member of the Society of Jesus, best known for his role as a historian and appreciated for his elegant style. He published works range from religious biographies to political histories.Unlike Martini and Semedo, Pierre Joseph d’Orléans did not visit China. Wheras the topic of Martini’s work was the conquest of China, here the focus shifts to the conquerors themselves, who are depicted in an overwhelmingly positive light. Pierre Joseph d’Orléans chooses to highlight not so much the youthful achievements or military successes of the two kings who conquered China but their “wisdom”, in order to paint an image of his own king. For the first time, we see a direct comparison between the early-Qing emperors and Louis XIV, a kind of double portrait, one that, in capturing (or creating) an image of the Tartar emperors, also reflects qualities the French king is praised for possessing.

Cordier, BS, 629 ; Lust, 446; Löwendahl, 190.

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29. AVRIL (PhiliPPE) Voyages en divers etats d'Europe et d'Asie, entrepris pour découvrir un nouveau chemin à la Chine contenant plusieurs remarques curieuses de physique, de geographie, d'hydrographie & d'histoire. Avec une description de la Grande Tartarie, & des differens peuples qui l'habitent. Paris, Claude Barbin - Jean Boudot - George & Louis Josse, 1692. 1 vol. in-quarto (250 x 190 mm.): [14], 406 pp., [24] pp. ; 1 engraved portrait of General Stanislas Jablonowski, 1 folding engraved map, 3 engraved plates and 5 large engraved vignettes. Contemporary mottled calf, coat of arms and triple gilt fillet to covers, spine with five raised bands, richly decorated in gilt. Arms of Louis François Armand de Vignerot du Plessis, duc de Richelieu et de Fronsac on both covers of the biding, and name of the vicomte d’Ermonville gilt lettered on upper cover.

Rare first edition of Avril’s two journeys through Central Asia aiming to discover new overland routes to China. A second edition was published at Utrecht in 1693, followed by a Dutch edition in 1694. An English edition also appeared in 1693.The French Jesuit Philippe Avril, professor of philosophy and mathematics at Paris, was summoned by Ferdinand Verbiest in Peking to join the mission there. For eight years, from 1692 to 1690, Avril travelled overland reaching North and Northwest China but ultimately failing to reach Peking. This narrative covers both journeys by caravan through Syria, Kurdistan, Armenia, Persia and across the Astrakan where he was turned back, and his attempt to cross Siberia from Moscow to China, with his return to the West through Constantinople, Moldavia, Poland and Lithuania.

Avril’s narrative is based on earlier Jesuit reports (Martino Martini, 1655 ; Nicolai Spafarii) but also on new intelligence given to him by caravan travellers and rulers he met en route, in particular the king of Syria.

Cordier, BS, 2088, Löwendahl, 206 (for the 1693 edition).

30. LE COMTE (louis) Nouveaux mémoires sur l'état présent de la Chine. Paris, Jean Anisson, 1696. 2 vols. in-12° (167 x 104 mm.): [34], 508 pp. ; [8], 536 pp.; 1 engraved frontispiece portrait, 20 engraved plates (2 folding), 1 folding table. Contemporary red morocco, spines gilt in compartments.

First edition. Louis Le Comte (1655-1728) entered the Society of Jesus in 1671 and was one of five Jesuit mathematicians sent by Louis XIV in 1685 to China where he arrived in 1687. En route to China, he recorded many astronomical observations. Although the emperor did not select him for service at the court after he arrived in 1688, he and two confreres were allowed to preach anywhere in China. He worked in the provinces of Shansi (Shanxi) and Shensi (Shaanxi). Due to Portuguese pressures against the presence of French Jesuits in China, Le Comte was sent back to France to report on the status of the mission. From Paris he proceeded to Rome, where he discussed these matters with Jesuit superiors. Shortly after his return to Paris, Le Comte published his book containing letters he addressed to members of French court circles with its observations on Chinese civilization: dress, customs, culture, architecture. In it he takes the defense of the Jesuit accommodation policy toward the Chinese Rites and customs. The condemnation of this work by the Sorbonne in 1700 was a catalyst in opening the discussion of the Chinese Rites controversy in Europe. Despite his desire to return to China, Lecomte was appointed the confessor of the Duchess of Burgundy and later died in his native city.His work helped to spread the knowledge about China throughout Europe, and it became extremely popular and reprinted at least seven times before 1702. It was also translated in English, German and Dutch.

Cordier, BS, 39 ; Lust, 55, Morrisson, II, 150; Löwendahl, 214

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31. BOUVET (Joachim) Portrait historique de l'Empereur de la Chine présenté au Roy. Paris, Robert & Nicolas Pepié, 1698. 1 vol. in-8° (167 x 95 mm.): 264 pp. [4] pp. Contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments.

Second edition of this famous and fundamental biography of the Manchu Emperor, which was first published in 1697 and later translated in English (1699), Dutch (1699), German (1706) and Italian (1710).Joachim Bouvet (c.1656-1732) was part of a group of Jesuits mathematicians sent to China by Louis XIV in 1685. After spending some time in Siam, they finally arrived in Peking in 1688. They were favorably received by the emperor, the famous Khang-hi, who retained Father Bouvet, together with Father Gerbillon, near his person and made them his instructors in mathematics. While engaged in this work, the two fathers wrote several mathematical treatises in the Tartar language, which the emperor caused to be translated into Chinese, adding prefaces

himself. They won so much the esteem and confidence of the emperor that he gave them space within the confines of the palace to build a church and a residence which were finally completed in 1702. The close proximity of Father Bouvet to the monarch made it possible for him to author a portrait of the emperor of China. In 1679, the emperor sent Father Bouvet back to France to come back with new missionaries. He gave him a gift of forty-nine volumes in Chinese for the French king. These were deposited in the Royal Library, and Louis XIV, in turn, commissioned Father Bouvet to present to the emperor a superbly bound collection of engravings.The work, which was aimed at obtaining the King’s support for the Jesuit mission in China, describes the life and work of the missionaries at the Imperial court in Peking and contains explicit comparisons between the qualities and roles of the two monarchs. Various Bouvet’s observations also appeared later in Du Halde’s Description de la Chine (Paris,1735).

Cordier, BS, 634-639; Löwendahl, 218.

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32. LE GOBIEN (charlEs) Histoire de l'édit de l'Empereur de la Chine en faveur de la religion chrestienne: avec un eclaircissement sur les honneurs que les Chinois rendent à Confucius & aux morts. Paris, Jean Anisson, 1698. 1 vol. in-12° (173 x 97 mm.): [34], 322 pp., [10] pp. Contemporary red morocco, coat of arms goldtooled on both covers, raised bands, spine richly gilt with heraldic pieces.

Magnificient copy bound by Augustin Du Seuil for the private library of Madame de Maintenon (1635-1719), after she retired and founded the Royal Convent School at Saint-Cyr in order to accomodate and educate poor girls of the French nobilty (coat of arms of Françoise d’Aubigné, marquise de Maintenon, on the covers of the binding and ex-libris of the Maison Royale de Saint-Cyr).

First edition. The work was also issued as a continuation of

Louis Lecomte’s Nouveaux mémoires sur l’état présent de la

Chine with prefixed half-title: “Suite des nouveaux mémoires

de la Chine”.

As a professor of philosophy, and especially while he was

procurator of the Franco-Chinese mission, Charles Le

Gobien (1653-1708) sought to stimulate interest among

fellow intellectuals in the great work of christianizing

Eastern Asia. The work ends with a summary of the political

relationship between the Chinese and the Muscovites. It

was soon translated into Italian (1699), German (1700) and

Dutch (1710).

Cordier II, 836 ; Lust, 822; Löwendahl, 227.

33. BRAND (adam) Relation du voyage de Mr. Evert Isbrand, envoyé de Sa Majesté Czarienne à l'Empereur de la Chine, en 1692, 93 & 94 […]. Amsterdam, Jean-Louis de Lorme, 1699. 1 vol. in-8° (155 x 98 mm.): [6], 250 pp. ; 1 engraved frontispiece, 1 folding engraved map. Contemporary calf, raised bands, spine gilt.

First French edition of Brand's narrative of his diplomatic mission to China with Evert Ysbrandt-Ides. The original German edition appeared at Hamburg in 1698.Adam Brand was secretary of the embassy sent by the Tsar of Russia to the Chinese Emperor. The purpose of this embassy of 1692-1695 led by Ysbrandt-Ides, a merchant born in Holstein in Russian service, was to conclude further commercial agreements with the Chinese, which it did not, in fact, achieve. Brand left Moscow on 24 March 1692, remained in Beijing from 13 November 1693 to 1st March 1694 and returned to Moscow on 11 February 1695.This work is illustrated by an engraved frontispiece and a folding map (Siberia and Mongolia and parts of China) which shows the roads and the stops of the Embassy through Russia and China.

Cordier, BS, 2469 ; Lust, 506; Löwendahl, 230.

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34. GHIRARDINI (Giovanni Battista) Relation du voyage fait à la Chine sur le vaisseau L'Amphitrite, en l'année 1698. Paris, Nicolas Pepie, 1700. (Bound with:) Les remarques sçavantes et curieuses sur divers sujets. Avec une Relation d’un voyage de la Chine. Paris, Théodore Guillain, 1702. Two works in 1 vol. in-12° (163 x 95 mm.): [12], 94 pp.; [2], 261, [3] pp. Contemporary calf, raised bands, gilt spine.

First edition of this uncommon account of a voyage to Canton by an Italian artist. Giovanni Battista Ghirardini (1650-1753), painter and architect, travelled to Bologna to apprentice with Angelo Michele Colonnas (1604-1687). In 1698, he accompanied father Joachim Bouvet to China where they arrived – at Canton – in February 1699. They were favourably received by the Emperor Kangxi at the Imperial Court. Ghirardini decorated the Jesuit Mission Church built in Peking by Charles de Belleville and also portrayed the members of the

imperial family. The admiration the Chinese paid to him was not only due to his astonishing mastering of perspective, but also for introducing the technique of oil painting into China, both of which were then unknown in that country. Ghirardini returned to Europe in 1704.

Marsden, 47 ; Brunet II, 1579-1580; Löwendahl, 277.

35. NAVARETTE (dominGo fErnandEz) An account of the Empire of China, historical, political, moral and religious [...]. London, Henry Lintot & John Osborn, 1704. 1 vol. in-folio (354 x 235 mm.): [8], 331 pp., supplement of 74 pp. (751-824 pp.) ; 1 engraved frontispiece portrait of Confucius, 4 engraved folding plates and 1 folding map. Period style brown gilt tooled quarter calf with marbled boards, raised bands with a red gilt morocco label.

First English edition of this interesting account found in volume 1 of Churchill’s Collection of voyages and travels. (London, 1704-1732).Archbishop Domingo Fernandez Navarette (c.1610-1689), Spanish Dominican, came to China in 1646 as a missionary. After learning the language, he labored chiefly in Fujian province. When persecution broke out in 1665, the effect on missions was disastrous. Forbidden to preach, Navarette occupied himself with writing, hoping in this way to spread and confirm the faith. However, he was hampered so much that he left for Rome in 1673 as prefect of the Dominican mission to discuss the question of Chinese Rites. This problem had reached an acute stage in China, with the Jesuits on one side and the Dominicans and Franciscans on the other.

Cordier, BS, 1945-46 ; Cox, I, 334.

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36. [RENAUDOT (EusèBE)] Anciennes relations des Indes et de la Chine, de deux voyageurs Mahométans, qui y allèrent dans le neuvième siècle; traduites d'arabe : avec des remarques sur les principaux endroits de ces relations. Paris, Jean-Baptiste Coignard, 1718. Two parts in 1 vol. in-8°(193 x 126 mm.): xxxix, 397, [17] pp.; large woodcut vignette on title. Contemporary French sprinkled calf with gilt spine gilt.

First edition of these two 9th-century travel descriptions to China and India, translated by Eusèbe Renaudot, "one of the greatest Orientalists of his time" (Catholic Encyclopedia). The voyages described herein date from 851 to 877. « The abbot Eusèbe Renaudot (1646-1720), author of this work, is undoubtedly the best expert of Eastern languages at the end of the 17th century, mainly Arabic, Syriac, and Coptic » (in Voltaire and China, exhibition catalogue, no. 46). The first "relation" (p. 1-124) is said to be extracted from statements made by a merchant named Sulaiman, and the second one is said to be a continuation of the first by Hasan Ibn Yazid and Abu Zaid Hasan. The original manuscript in Arabic, now kept at the French National Library, was not written until the 12th century and not published until 1845. The relations of these two Arabic travellers in China and India are a precious account on the customs and the governments at that time. This original French edition was followed in 1733 by an English translation and an Italian edition appeared in 1749.« The written works of Sulaiman had a profound effect on many Arabic and Persian geographers, and are of exceptional importance to the student of early Islamic trade. Many of the places described found their way into the adventures of Sindbad » (Howgego, S, 190).

Cordier, BS, 1923-4 ; Lust, 298 ; Löwendahl, 336.

37. GEMELLI-CARERI (Giovanni francEsco) Voyage du tour du monde, traduit de l'italien de Gemelli Careri, par L.M.N. Enrichi d’un grand nombre de figures. Paris, Etienne Ganeau, 1719. 6 vols. in-12° (172 x 97 mm.) : [14], xxiv, [2], 454, 14 pp. ; [10], 354, [8] pp. ; [10], 402 pp. ; [10], 532 pp. ; [10], 374 pp. ; [5], 512 pp. ; engraved emblematic frontispiece, portrait of the author and 59 maps and plates (35 of fruit and plants, 7 folding). Contemporary calf, gilt spine with red labels.

First French edition of this work first published in Italian under the title "Giro del Mondo del dottor D. Gio. Francesco Gemelli Careri" (Naples, 1699-1700). Giovanni Francesco Gemelli-Careri (1651-1725) left Italy in 1693 and travelled through Turkey, Persia and India. He then continued to Macao and on to Beijing (arriving in November 1695). The Italian Jesuit Claudio Filippo Grimaldi « arranged an audience with the Kangxi Emperor, who apparently regarded Careri as some sort of emissary of the Pope » (Howgego). Careri returned to Macao via Canton, then sailed for the Philippines in April 1696. After some time in Manila he left for Mexico in 1697 and then onwards, reaching Naples in December 1698. His account of his travels was evidently very popular and went through a number of editions in various languages. Volume 4 is entirely devoted to China.

Sabin, 26851 ; Howgego, C, 40 ; Chadenat, 3759.

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38. BERGERON (PiErrE) Voyages faits principalement en Asie dans les xii, xiii, xiv et xv siècles, par Benjamin de Tudele, Jean du Plan-Carpin, N. Ascelin, Guillaume de Rubruquis, Marc Paul Venitien, Haiton, Jean de Mandeville, et Ambroise Contarini: accompagnés de l'histoire des Sarasins et des Tartares, et précédez d'une introduction concernant les voyages et les nouvelles découvertes des principaux voyageurs. The Hague, Jean Neaulme, 1735. 2 vols. large in-quarto (288 x 228 mm.): [8], 161, [6], 67, [5], 82, [5], 161, [8], 136, 38, [1] pp. ; [6], 69, 38, [1], 44, 185, 96, [2], 26, [1], 62, [1] pp. ; titles printed in red and black, 5 folding maps indicating the itineraries of the voyagers, 8 half-page engraved plates in the text. Contemporary mottled calf, spines gilt in compartments with red and black title labels lettered in gold, red painted edges.

Second issue of this famous collection of travels to Asia and China compiled from various sources and edited by the French poet, geographer and traveller Pierre Bergeron (1580-1637). This work contains a collection of accounts concerning the early travellers and ambassadors to Tartary and China, followed by the history of the Saracens and Mohammedans (Arabic, Turkish, Persian and North African).Originally composed by Pierre Bergeron and based on medieval travels, the work was first published at Paris in 1634. A new enlarged version in two volumes was published in Leiden in 1729 by Pierre Van der Aa under the title Receuil de divers voyages curieux, faits en Tartarie, en Perse et ailleurs. Our edition is a reprint of this edition with a new title.

Cordier, BS, 1941 ; Lust 244; Löwendahl, 391.

39. DU HALDE (JEan-BaPtistE) Description geographique, historique, chronologique, politique, et physique de l'Empire de la Chine et de la Tartarie Chinoise, enrichie des cartes generales et particulieres de ces pays, de la carte generale & des cartes particulieres du Thibet, & de la Corée, & ornée d'un grand nombre de figures et de vignettes gravées en taille-douce. Paris, P.G. Le Mercier, 1735. 4 vols. in-folio (420 x 285 mm.): [6], lii, iii, 592 pp. ; [6], iv, 725 pp. ; [6], iv, 564, [3] pp. ; [4], ii, 520 pp. ; 53 fine engraved maps and plans (42 folding or double-page), 12 engraved plates (10 double-page), titles printed in red & black with engraved vignette, woodcut head- and tail-pieces and typographic ornaments, decorative initials, text printed in double columns. Contemporary calf, spines gilt in compartments with red morocco labels.

First French folio edition, considered by Lada-Mocarski to be « the most desirable and significant ».This work, « the first definitive European work on the Chinese Empire » (Hill), was compiled by Du Halde, Jesuit and former confessor to the Duc d’Orléans, from memoirs and letters, published and unpublished, sent by 27 Jesuit missionaries during their travels, and particularly based on Martino Martini’s Sinicae historiae decas prima (1658) and Lecomte’s Nouveaux mémoires sur l’état présent de la Chine (1696).Historically, this work is regarded as monumental because of the vast amount and variety of interesting details on Chinese political institutions, education, language, medicine, science, customs and artefacts - it is one of the earliest European sources on Chinese ceramics - but also because it publishes for the first time 43 maps by Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d'Anville, internationally recognized as “the finest cartographer of his time” (Moreland & Bannister). Notwithstanding various inaccuracies, Du Halde’s work remains today “The Bible of European sinophilia” (Löwendahl, I, 394).The Description is contained in four extensively and handsomely illustrated volumes. Subjects treated include a comprehensive geographical description of the provinces, an extensive treatment of political and educational institutions, Chinese language and writing system. There is a discussion of the exotic artefacts of widespread interest to Europeans (silks, porcelain, etc). Volume III covers religion, family structure, and ethics. There is a survey of the development of sciences and Chinese medicine, with a certain amount of materia medica, with extracts in translation of several scientific and material treatises. Owing to dissension between the French Foreign Mission and Rome, Du Halde was under severe pressure to say as little as possible about the progress of Christianity in Asia, lest this show the disagreements within the Order about such contentious issues as the Rites controversy etc. Accordingly, the emphasis falls heavily on secular material.

Volume IV contains the lion’s share of the work’s maps and includes the first published account and map of Bering’s first expedition based on information which Du Halde received from the King of Poland.The work went through numerous editions and translations, and the plates were much copied and pirated, but the first edition had the largest format and is considered best.

Cordier, BS, 46–47 ; Hill, 498 ; Howes, 546; Löwendahl, 394; Chadenat, 5053; Brunet, II, 870.

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40. BOURGUIGNON d’ANVILLE (JEan-BaPtistE) Nouvel atlas de la Chine, de la Tartarie Chinoise, et du Thibet: contenant les cartes generales & particulieres de ces pays. Ainsi que la carte du Royaume de Corée. The Hague, Henry Scheurleer, 1737. 1 vol. in-folio (530 x 365 mm.), title printed in red and black and incorporating the list of maps, 42 engraved maps (12 maps are in double-folio of which 2 are in original outline hand-colouring, and 30 folio maps). Contemporay calf, coat of arms gold tooled on covers, spine gilt in compartments with red title label.

First edition of this second European Atlas of China (Blaeu's Atlas Sinensis is the first) by the famous French carthographer, Jean Baptiste Bourguignon d’Anville (1697-1782). This atlas constitutes the first scientific mapping of China, as it is based on triangulation nets in a period when a more scientific approach was being given to the subject. Consisting of 42 maps, each of the separate provinces are described in detail and extend to the territories of Tibet, with 10 sheets, and Korea, with one general map

of the country. The atlas was first published to accompany Du

Halde's Description géographique, historique, chronologique, et

physique de l'Empire de la Chine' (4 vols., 1735). The maps were

re-engraved in this edition, several with additional details,

cartouches and scales added. And it was also later reprinted to

be published as the Atlas volume of Mailla’s Histoire générale

de la Chine in 1785. The atlas is important not only for the

detailed coverage of China, but also because it contains the first

European map showing Korea, not as an island, but forming

part of the Asian Continent (cf : double-folio map numbered

31), the first serious study of Tibet and the most important set

of maps of China since the Blaeu/Martini atlas.

It remained the principal cartographical authority on China

during the rest of the 18th century, and was the first Atlas

at all to give an accurate indication of the Pacific coastline

(the Yellow Sea and its gulfs and headlands of the Molucca

Islands). Other cartographers frequently copied these maps.

Cordier, BS, 48 ; Tooley, 18 ; Löwendahl, 401.

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41. CHAMBERS (William) Dessins des édifices, meubles, habits, machines et ustensiles des Chinois. Gravés sur les originaux dessinés a la Chine par Mr Chambers, architecte […] auxquels est ajoutée une description de leurs temples, de leurs maisons, de leurs jardins &c. London, J. Haberkorn, 1757. 1 vol. in-folio (540 x 380 mm.): [8], 20 pp., 21 engraved plates depicting Chinese architectural details, furniture, dresses, maChines, and utensils. Half calf with leather title label on upper cover.

First edition (with French text) of the first work of the

famous architect William Chambers.

Sir William Chambers (1722-1796) first became

interested in Chinese architecture when he visited

China and stayed for several months in Canton

during his travels as an employee of the Swedish

East India Company. He made drawings of Chinese

architecture, furniture and costume which served

as basis for his work, which had a significant

influence on contemporary taste. He developed his

Chinese interests further with his Dissertation on

Oriental Gardening (1772), a fanciful elaboration of

contemporary English ideas about the naturalistic

style of gardening in China.

Chambers continually wavered in his expressions

of commitment to the Chinese style, a fact that

suggests he was acutely aware of the problems

posed by his divided aesthetic loyalties but that also

makes it difficult to assess the true nature and depth

of his interest in Chinese models. This ambivalence

first appears in the introduction to his Designs of

Chinese Buildings, Furniture, Dresses, Machines, and

Ustensils. On the one hand, he seems genuinely to

admire Chinese architects for their originality and

for the «singularity, justness, simplicity, and beauty»

of their creations, going as far as to note certain

resemblances with structures of classical antiquity.

Yet, on the other hand, he feels compelled, at least

in part by concerns for his reputation, to disclaim

any intent "to promote a taste so much inferior to

the antique," and ultimately dismisses the Chinese

buildings whose designs fill his volume as mere

curiosities and «toys in architecture» (preface).

It is only at the age of twenty-six that Chambers decided

to further his studies and became an architect.

The influence of this work was felt throughout Europe.

Chambers was the first trained architect to publish

architectural drawings of Chinese buildings admired for

their authenticity. His drawings of Cantonese buildings

served him and heavily influenced the interior decorative

shemes of Brigthon Pavillon. His best-known work is the

Pagoda (1757-1762) at Kew Gardens.

Cordier, BS, 1570, Löwendahl, 487.

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42. DE L’ISLE (JosEPh) & PINGRÉ (alExandrE) Description de la ville de Peking, pour servir à l’intelligence du plan de cette ville, gravé par les soins de M. De l’Isle. Paris, J.-Th. Herissant, 1765. 1 vol. in-quarto (265 x 205 mm.): [2], 44, [1] pp. with 1 woodcut vignette on title, 1 large woodcut headpiece on first page and 6 engraved folding plates, signed Dheulland or Lattré. Contemporary marbled paper covered boards, calf spine with five raised bands, ruled and lettered in gilt.

First edition of this rare description of Peking by Joseph Nicolas De L’Isle (1688-1768) and Alexandre Guy Pingré (1711-1796). De L’Isle was a renowned French astronomer who resided for 22 years in Russia where he established an astronomical institute. He invented a particular method to draw geographical maps. For more than thirty years De L’Isle has been corresponding with Jesuits studying astronomy and geography in China, collecting a large amount of memoirs. The Jesuit father Patouillet asked him to compose a map of Peking, based on these memoirs.

Patouillet’s purpose was to illustrate the description of Peking which he intended to publish in the 29th volume of the Lettres Edifiantes. Unfortunately, Patouillet was unable to achieve his goal, but De L'Isle, helped by Pingré, continued and finished the description. Astronomical observations helped them to determine with enough precision the position of Peking. The description includes a historical part, a general description, a description of the Tartarian city, a description of the Chinese town and the suburbs and a more detailed description of certain places. It contains one of the first European plans of Peking.

Cordier, BS, 210-211 ; Lust, 187 ; Morrison II, 67.

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43. BELL d'ANTERMONY (John) Voyages depuis St Petersbourg en Russie dans diverses contrées de l'Asie; à Pékin à la suite de l'ambassade envoyée par le Czar Pierre I, à Kamhi, Empereur de la Chine […]. Paris, Robin, 1766. 3 vols. in-12° (170 x 95 mm.): xii, 407 pp. ; [3], 362 pp. ; [4], 332, [6] pp. ; 1 folding map. Contemporary calf, spine gilt.

First French edition of this account by John Bell (1691-1780), Scottish doctor and traveller. Bell studied medicine in Glasgow and in 1714 set out for St Petersburg, where, through the introduction of a fellow Scot, he was appointed medical attendant to Artemy Petrovich Volynsky, recently appointed to the Persian embassy, with whom he travelled from 1715 to 1718. From 1719 to 1721, he accompanied Lev Vasilievitch Izmailov’s embassy to China in the capacity of official physician, passing through Siberia and the great Tatar deserts. He had scarcely rested from this last journey when he was summoned to attend Peter the Great in his expedition to Derbend and the Caspian Gates. In 1738 he was sent by the Russian government on a mission to Constantinople, returning in May to St Petersburg. His travels, published at Glasgow in 1763, were quickly translated into French, and widely circulated in Europe. Bell’s description of the manners, customs and superstitions of the inhabitants and the great wall deserve particular attention.

Cordier, BS, 2093 and 2470 ; Boucher de la Richarderie, I, 196 ; Lust, 314 and 522 ; Löwendahl, 528.

44. AMIOT (JEan) - CIBOT (PiErrE-martial) Mémoires concernant l'histoire, les sciences, les arts, les moeurs, les usages, &c. des Chinois, par les missionnaires de Pékin. Paris, Nyon, 1776-1814. 15 vols. in-quarto (260 x 198 mm.): xvi, 485 pp ; viii, 650 pp. ; iv, 504 pp. ; iv, 510 pp. ; [6], 518 pp. ; [4], 380 pp. ; x, 397, [2] pp. ; viii, 375, [1] pp. ; xxiv, 470 pp. ; xi, [1], 510 pp. ; xxiv, 609 pp. ; vii, [3], 532 pp. ; xvi, 543 pp. ; xvi, 561, [1] pp. ; xx, 516 pp. ; with 166 engraved plates, portraits, maps and tables (some folding). Contemporary mottled calf, three borders on covers, spine gilt with red and brown labels, red mottled edges.

First edition of this encyclopaedic work, containing several missionaries’ reports and considered at the time as the chief source of information in Europe regarding China and its people. This immense collection of articles and letters written by the China Jesuits deals with a ride range of subjects. It contains the works of Bourgeois, Cibot, Poirot, Gaubil, Amiot and others.Most of the important works of Jean-Joseph-Marie Amiot (1718-1793) are found in this collection. This one was sent to China in 1740 as a missionary where his fluency in Tatar brought him into the confidence of the Emperor Kien Long. He was authorized to remain for the rest of his life in Peking after the suppression of the Jesuits in 1773. His mastery also of the Chinese language together with his extensive knowledge of the arts and sciences gave him extraordinary insight concerning all things Chinese. He made a special study of their music.This collection contains also the works of Pierre-Martial Cibot (1727-1780) who was sent to China at his own request in 1758. He reached Beijing in 1760, joining the Jesuits who were retained at the court of the emperor. Cibot during his many years in China found time to devote to historical and scientific studies. Modesty prevented him from signing many of his essays. His style was somewhat diffuse, and his writings were valued chiefly for their variety and the information which they contained.Among the monographs, the most interesting are on language and literature, warfare and philosophy, including a complete life of Confucius. In addition, there are studies on natural history, science, architecture and agriculture, translations of Chinese poetry and biographical sketches of famous Chinese. This is undoubtedly the best work that Jesuits have published on China.

Cordier, BS, 54-56 ; Lust, 96 ; Chadenat, 375; Sommervogel, II, 1140.

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45. SONNERAT (PiErrE) Voyage aux Indes Orientales et à la Chine fait par ordre du Roi, depuis 1774 jusqu’en 1781 : dans lequel on traite des mœurs, de la religion, des sciences & des arts des Indiens, des Chinois, des Pégouins & des Madegasses ; suivi d’observations sur le Cap de Bonne Espérance, les Isles de France & de Bourbon, les Maldives, Ceylan, Malacca, les Philippines & les Moluques, & des recherches sur l’histoire naturelle de ces pays. Paris, Froulé-Nyon-Barrois, 1782. 3 vols. in-8° (220 x 147 mm.) : xxi, 340 pp., [1] ff. ; [3] ff., 376 pp., [1] ff. ; [3] ff., 362 pp., [1] ff., 7 folding plates engraved by Poisson after drawings by the author, including one plan of Pondicherry. Contemporary calf, spine gilt decorated with red morocco labels, red edges.

First edition of this work published simultaneously with the quarto edition in two volumes. It was later translated in Dutch (1785-86) and English (1788-89).The French naturalist and explorer Pierre Sonnerat (1748-1814) was the nephew of the botanist Pierre Poivre. He made several voyages to Southeast Asia, visiting the Philippines and Moluccas between 1769 and 1772, and India and China from 1774 to 1781. He always spoke out against the prevalent racism in the European circles of his time.His work is considered a classic of natural history and discoveries in the Far East, including China, Ceylon, Malacca, the Philippines, Burma and the Maldives. Sonnerat was the first person to give a scientific description of the south Chinese fruit tree lychee. On his return to France, he handed over his best natural history specimens to the Cabinet du Jardin du Roi and was named Marine Commissioner.

Cordier, BS, 2102 ; Lust, 353; Löwendahl, 631.

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46. HELMAN (isidorE) Abrégé historique des principaux traits de la vie de Confucius, célèbre philosophe Chinois, orné de 24 estampes in 4° gravées par Helman, d'après des dessins originaux de la Chine envoyés à Paris par M. Amiot, missionnaire à Pékin [...] - Faits mémorables des Empereurs de la Chine, tirés des annales Chinoises. Paris, L'Auteur & M. Ponce, n.d. [1786 or 1788]. Two parts in 1 vol. in-folio (420 x 280 mm.): unpaginated. The first part contains 1 engraved title-leaf, 24 engraved plates of the life of Confucius (Kongzi) with 24 engraved descriptive text leaves. The second part also contains 24 engraved plates and 20 engraved descriptive text leaves. Recent half calf, raised bands, spine gilt.

A very rare folio version of the first edition of these two works engraved by Isidore Stanislas Henri Helman (1743-1806) and drawn by Jean-Denis Attiret (1702-1768), official painter to the imperial workshop at Peking, copied from a set of Chinese miniatures which were sent by the Jesuit missionary Amiot in Peking to Bertin, who was Louis XIV's Minister of Art and the one in charge of France's relations with China. The engravings in the first part illustrate the life and deeds of Confucius. In the second part, they illustrate the memorable achievements of the Chinese emperors.Isidore Helman was a French engraver and printseller with a reputation as an engraver of genre scenes. One of the first pupils at the free school of drawing in Lille, he studied under Louis-Jean Guéret and Louis-Joseph Watteau.

Cohen, 262-63 ; Cordier, BS, 667 ; Lust, 729.

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47. STAUNTON (GEorGE lEonard) An authentic account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China; including cursory observations made, and information obtained, in travelling through that ancient Empire, and a small part of Chinese Tartary [...]. London, W. Bulmer for G. Nicol, 1797. 3 vols. including: - 2 text vols. in-quarto (349 x 280 mm.): [4], xxxiv, 518 ; [2], xx, 626 pp. ; 2 engraved frontispiece portraits, 1 engraved plate, 26 illustrations in the text ; - 1 atlas in-folio (570 x 420 mm.) with 44 plates and maps (1 folding, 6 double-page) mainly after Alexander. Recent half-calf with marbled boards, gilt spine.

First edition of the official account of Lord Macartney’s voyage and embassy to the Qianlong Emperor in 1792-94, compiled by Sir George Leonard Staunton.G.L. Staunton, a medical doctor and friend of Dr Johnson, had already served in many diplomatic posts, some as aide-de-camp to Lord Macartney when governor of the Caribbean Islands in the West Indies. When Macartney was appointed governor at Madras, Staunton accompanied him as secretary. After a period of retirement he was again called to serve Macartney, as Secretary to the embassy to China (and Minister Plenipotentiary in the absence of the Ambassador). To write his account, Staunton had access to Macartney’s Journal and was assisted by John Barrow (see cat. 50). Staunton's account is

noteworthy for his detailed description of the journey, his examination of Chinese customs (he gives an account of the binding of women's feet) and the detailed appendix on Chinese trade with Europe, and more specifically Britain, the bureaucratic structure of the Empire and its military, its population and revenues. Alexander's plates are of special interest due to their depiction of subjects that very few Europeans had recorded or seen and the indications they gave as to the considerable technical, artistic and organisational advancement of the Chinese civilization. Alexander later produced his own book, The Costume of China, which was published in 1805 (see cat. 51).This work was remarkably successful: 15 editions were issued in seven countries in thirty years.

Cordier, BS, 2381–3 ; Hill, 1628 ; Löwendahl, 697.

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48. BRAAM HOUCKGEEST (andréas van) Voyage de l'ambassade la Compagnie des Indes Orientales Hollandaises vers l'Empereur de la Chine, en 1794 et 1795. Tiré du journal d’André EverardVan-Braam Houckgeest […]. Paris-Strasbourg, Garnery, 1798. 2 vols. in-8° (200 x 130 mm.): [4], xxxii, 351 pp.; [4], 286 pp. Contemporary half green morocco, gilt spine with red label.

Second edition of this work considered to be the most informative of the three reports written by members of the Dutch East India Company’s 1794-1795 embassy (the others being Guignes’ and Titsing’s), and next to the accounts of Macartney’s embassy, one of the most important European sources on China at the close of the 18th century. The first edition was published in 1797-98 at Philadelphia (2 vols. in-quarto) and is extremely rare.Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest (1739-1801) came to America as Dutch Consul to North and South Carolina. He subsequently travelled to China on several occasions. In 1790, he resided in Canton and Macao as supercargo of the Dutch East India Company. In 1794-95, he accompanied the Dutch Company’s embassy, headed by Isaac Titsing (1745-1812) and Chrétien Joseph Louis de Guignes (1759–1845) sent to China to congratulate the Qianlong emperor on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of his accession to the throne. In Beijing, the embassy was received by the Emperor (1711-1799) together with representatives of other tributary countries ; the members of the embassy performed the “kowtow” (Chinese reverence) in front of the Emperor according to Chinese custom, unlike British diplomats who refused to make the effort to conform with the demands of the complex Imperial court etiquette. Van Braam had retained his US citizenship acquired in 1783, and thus became the first American to meet a Chinese emperor.Throughout the journey, Houckgeest’s attention was fixed on the landscapes, the plants and animals, the countryside and towns, and the people. All of these provided inexhaustible sources of fascination. In Houckgeest’s day, China stood as a colossal mystery in the Western mind. This work includes the advertissement by the editor and translator Moreau de Saint-Méry (1750-1819) – a French emigrant who lived for a few years in Philadelphia before being recalled to France by Napoleon - and a list of drawings in the possession of Van Braam made during his stay in China. The text of the journal covers the period of April 2, 1794 to April 4, 1795.

Cordier, BS 2350 ; Lust, 504.

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49. MASON (GEorGE-hEnri) The costume of China illustrated by sixty engravings : with explanations in English and French. London, Printed for W. Miller by S. Gosnell, 1800. The punishments of China illustrated by twenty-two engravings : with explanations in English and French. Printed for W. Miller by W. Bulmer and Co. 1801. 2 works in 1 vol. in-folio (358 x 279 mm.); unpaginated, 60 handcoloured stipple engravings, each with one leaf descriptive text in English and French; 22 handcoloured stipple-engravings, each with one leaf of explanatory text in English and French. Red morocco, covers richly decorated with gilt frieze, gilted edges.

First edition of these two works of George-Henri Mason.The engravings of the first work (The costume of China) depict individual Chinese in the dress appropriate to their occupation or rank and are based on originals by the Cantonese export artist Pu-Qua and engraved by J. Dadley. This is the expanded edition with 60 plates. Later versions had only 48 plates. The second work (The punishments of China) describes, in graphic detail, the forms of punishment deemed suitable for numerous crimes committed in China. Each plate illustrates one type of torturous punishment from less severe penalties like "Torturing the Fingers" and "Twisting a Man's Ears," to the most serious "The Manner of Beheading." The accompanying text, in both French and English, explains the method by which the punishment is delivered. Oftentimes, a particular punishment was used for a specific crime, as is the case of "Punishment of the Swing," in which a "man is suspended by his shoulders and ankles, in a very painful situation”. This punishment is chiefly inflicted upon such merchants as have been detected in committing frauds, impositions, or any other unwarrantable tricks of the trade. While the methods are clearly barbaric by today's standards, Mason's book, along with the translation of the Qing penal code in 1810, already created growing concern at that time in Britain and other Western countries over the perceived severity and unnecessary cruelty of the punishments described.

Cordier, BS, 1858 / Cordier, BS, 549 ; Lust, 712 ; Löwendahl, 710, 715.

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50. BARROW (John) Travels in China. Containing descriptions, observations, and comparisons, made and collected in the course of a short residence at the imperial palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a subsequent journey through the country from Pekin to Canton. In which it is attempted to appreciate the rank that this extraordinary Empire may be considered to hold in the scale of civilized nations. London, Printed by A. Strahan for T. Cadell And W. Davies, 1804. 1 vol. in-quarto (275 x 225 mm.): x, [2], 632 pp. ; 8 engravings (including five hand-coloured aquatints and two folding plates). Half morocco over marbled boards, spine gilted in compartments.

First edition of this account, probably one of the best illustrated English travel relations on China. John Barrow (1764-1849) accompanied Macartney's mission to the court of China in 1792 as Comptroller of the Household. The strict exclusion of Europeans by the Chinese Emperors had left China very much terra incognita to the western world well into the 19th century. Barrow was an excellent observer, and the text contains a number of descriptions of Chinese artefacts and novelties as well as some first-hand information not found in Staunton (see cat. 47). The work contains navigation observations on the Yellow Sea, the Pei-ho River, Journey through the capital, the Imperial Palace and gardens. It draws a sketch of the state of society, the manners and customs, the civil and moral character of the people, the language, literature and fine arts, the sciences and civil institutions, the religious worship and

opinions, the amusements of the court, reception of Ambassadors, character and private life of the Emperor, women, eunuchs, etc. The plates are from drawings by W. Alexander who accompanied the embassy and later published his own work (see cat. 51).

Abbey, Travel 531 ; Cordier, BS, 2388-9 ; Tooley, 84 ; Hill I, 15; Lust, 365; Löwendahl, 724.

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51. ALEXANDER (William) The costume of China illustrated in forty-eight couloured engravings. London, William Miller, 1805. 1 vol. large in-quarto (340 x 260 mm.): [12] pp., 48 full page hand-coloured copper etched plates with a text leaf for each one. Half title, dedication plate, printed title. Half orange morocco, with marbled boards, gilted spine and edges.

First edition of this work containing pictorial representations of the dress and manners of the Chinese. The work was originally published in parts by G. Nicoll between 1794 and 1804, but Abbey states that no description of a copy in parts has been seen.William Alexander (1767-1816), student of the Royal Academy, studied art under Pars, and subsequently Ibbetson. In 1792, he was appointed one of the draftsmen to the Macartney Embassy to China (see cat. 50). From 1792 to 1794 he accompanied Lord George Macartney's official embassy on behalf of the British government to Beijing, where he documented the visit and made drawings of the Chinese court. In 1802 he was appointed professor of drawing at the Royal Military School, and later served as curator of drawings and prints at the British Museum.

He made the drawings for the plates which accompany Sir George Staunton's account of that embassy (see cat. 47) and afterwards published The Costume of China.The plates depict various mandarins, tradesmen, royalty and all phases of Chinese society, fashion and costume. These engravings form a contrast to the earlier illustrations by the Chinese artist Peu Qua who illustrated Mason's Costumes of China in 1801 (see cat. 49).

Cordier, BS, 1858 ; Abbey, Travel, 534 ; Löwendahl, 727.

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52. HOLMES (samuEl) Voyage en Chine et en Tatarie, a la suite de l'ambassade de lord Macartney [...]. Auquel on a joint les vues, costumes, etc., De la Chine, par M.W. Alexandre, les planches de l'atlas original de cette ambassade, omises dans la traduction française, et leur explication. Ouvrage traduit de l'anglais par MM.***, Revu et publié avec des observations sur les relations politiques et commerciales de l'Angleterre et de la France avec la Chine, et quelques notes, par l. Langlès. Paris, Delance et Lesueur, an XIII (1805). 2 vols. in-8° (194 x 125 mm.) : [4], xlvi, 172, [4] pp. ; [4], 188 pp. ; 2 folding engraved plans and 51 engraved plates, mostly engraved by S. Simon after William Alexander. Contemporary full sheep, spine gilt.

First French edition of the journal of Mr. Samuel Holmes, sergeant-major of the XIth light dragoons, during his attendance, as one of the guards on Lord Macartney’s embassy to China and Tartary, translated and edited by Langlès.The first volume contains some observations about political and commercial relations between Great Britain, France and China, and a description of Chinese manners and customs ; the second volume contains several explanations of the maps, views and plans which appeared in the first edition of Staunton’s An authentic account of an Embassy (see cat. 47). It completes the official relation of Lord Macartney’s embassy.

Cordier, BS, 2387 ; Colas, 1472; Löwendahl, 729.

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53. BARROW (John) Voyages en Chine, formant le complément du voyage de Lord Macartney, contenant des observations et des descriptions faites pendant le séjour de l'auteur dans le palais impérial de Yuen-Min-Yuen et en traversant l'Empire Chinois, de Péking à Canton, suivi de la relation de l'ambassade envoyée, en 1719, à Péking, par Pierre Premier, Empereur de Russie. Paris, F. Buisson, An XIII (1805). 4 vols. comprising : 3 vols. in-8° (text): [2] ff., [v] to xvi, 464 pp. ; [2] ff., 400 pp. ; [2], 392 pp. ; 1 atlas in-4° (285 x 215 mm.): [2] ff. and 22 engraved plates. Half sheep with red title labels.

First French edition of Barrow's Travels in China, first published in London, 1804. Barrow was Comptroller of the Household of Lord Macartney's embassy to China. His account of the mission is very detailed. The plates of the atlas include a fine color portrait of Van-ta-gin, specimen of Chinese characters, an attractive view of a junk, a rice mill, and much on Chinese music (with the music transcribed) and artillery musical instruments.The next year a follow up work was published recording the return portion of Macartney's voyage to China, visiting Madeira, Tenerife, Rio, Tristan de Cunha, Java and Vietnam (A Voyage to Cochinchina in the Years 1792 & 1793).The second part of the third volume contains a relation by Jean Bell d’Antermony of the embassy sent in 1719 by Pierre the First, Czar of Russia, to the Emperor of China under the leadership of Leoff Wassiliowitch Ismaïloff.

Cordier, BS, 2389.

91

54. OKADA (Gyokuzan) - OKA (YûGaku) - ôHARA (tôya minsEi) Morokoshi Meisho Zue (Description of famous places in China). Ôsaika (Japan), Kawachiya Kichibei [and 11 others], Bunka 3 (1806). 6 vols. in-quarto (250 x 175 mm.). Wood-block printed on rice paper ; about 250 wood-engravings (170 double-page). Text printed in Chinese and Japanese. Contemporary Japanese binding in a blue cloth slipcase.

Very scarce edition of this magnificent work on the famous places of Qing Dynasty in China, edited and illustrated by the Japanese artists Okada Gyokuzan (1737-1812), Oka Yugaku (1762-1833) and Ohara Toya (1771-1840).This work contains many city plans and maps of China provinces. The illustrations accompanying the

descriptions depict mostly topographical views : natural, archaeological or sacred sites (the Four Sacred Mountains of Buddhism, monasteries) and palaces, or historical and legendary scenes based on classical literature. Are also depicted a variety of ancient musical and astronomical instruments and costumes. The superb illustrations include: a map of China and Korea, a map of Peking, the Forbidden City, musical instruments, the astronomical observatory of Peking set up by Johan Schall and Ferdinand Verbiest, maps and views of the Great Wall and its numerous gates. There are also views of buildings no longer extant, such as the Imperial Elephant Stables.

Kerlen 1077.

93

55. GUIGNES (chrétiEn dE) Voyages à Peking, Manille et l'Île de France, faits dans l'intervalle des années 1784 à 1801. Paris, L'Imprimerie impériale (J.J. Marcel), 1808. 4 vols. including : 3 vols. in-8° (222 x 145 mm.) : [6], lxiii, 439, [2] pp. ; [6], 476, [2] pp. ; [6], 488 pp. (text); 1 vol. in-folio (414 x 270 mm.) with 60 full-page engraved plates with 92 views or figures, and 6 engraved maps (atlas). Contemporary full green morocco binding by Alexis-Pierre Bradel with spines richly gilt (text); half green morocco with marbled boards and spine richly gilt (atlas). Coat of arms of Napoleon gold tooled on both covers of the three volumes of text.

Original French edition of this fine and well illustrated work on the journey to, and history, costumes, feasts, customs of China and the Philippines by the French merchant-trader and lexicographer Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes (1759-1845), son of the French academician and sinologue Joseph de Guignes. In 1784, de Guignes was appointed Resident of France in China and consul at Canton. In 1794 and 1795, he accompanied the Dutch embassy to Peking. He returned to France after having lived for 17 years in China. During

his stay in China and afterwards, de Guignes was a correspondent for the Académie des Sciences and the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres at Paris.The maps include the region between Peking and Qindao (Canton) and a plan and map of Macao. The plates illustrate views, architecture of palaces and pagodas, street life, gardens, costumes.

Cordier, BS, 2351-2352 ; Gay, 3307 ; Chadenat , 590 ; Morison II, 104.

95

56. BRETON dE la MARTINIÈRE (JEan-BaPtistE) China : its costume, arts, manufactures, &c. Edited principally from the originals in the cabinet of the late M. Bertin ; with observations, explanatory, historical, and literary by M. Breton. Translated from the French. London, J.J. Stockdale, 1813. 4 parts in 2 vols. in-8° (218 x 140 mm.): [12], 128 pp. ; [4], 125, [6] pp.; [10], 135 pp., [4], 160, [2] pp. ; 80 handcoloured engraved plates. Contemporary full green grained morocco, gilt spine and edges.

Third English edition translated from the French. The original French edition was published as La Chine en miniature in Paris in 1811 as four volumes, with two further volumes published in 1812. The first English edition (1812) was based on vols. 1-4 only.The volumes contain 80 hand-coloured plates which represent the whole range of Chinese society, especially the various trades, arts and costumes of China and its people. Particularly interesting are the numerous depictions of itinerant salesmen and craftsmen with ingenious methods of transporting their inventories and maChinery. The plates « originated in the activities of Bertin, Secretary of State from 1762-1780, who had responsibility for the Compagnie des Indes and French Jesuits in Peking. He subsidized generously the Jesuits and got two Chinese converts to take science courses in France. On return to China, they produced some 400 drawings of arts and crafts, thus moving outside the usual narrow missionary interests » (Lust).

Cordier, BS, 65 ; Lust, 1243 ; Abbey Travel 535 ; Löwendahl, 842 and 757.

97

57. INCARVILLE (PiErrE lE chéron d’) Arts, métiers et cultures de la Chine, représentés dans une suite de gravures, exécutees d’apres les dessins originaux envoyes de Pekin, accompagnes des explications donnees par les missionnaires français et étrangers, pensionnés par louis xiv, louis xv et louis xvi […] – Art du vernis. Paris, Nepveu, 1814-1815. 2 parts in 1 vol. in-12° (143 x 92 mm.): - “Art du vernis”, 1814: 84 pp., - “Papier de bambou”, 1815 : 71 pp. ; with 11 + 13 double-page coloured plates. Original publisher's printed wrapper (uncut), preserved in a green morocco box.

First edition of this attractive work detailing the arts, trades and cultures of China, accompanied by 24 handcoloured engraved plates executed from the original drawings sent back by the Jesuit Pierre d'Incarville during his stay in China.Pierre Le Chéron d’Incarville (1706-1757), French Jesuit and amateur botanist joined the China Mission in 1740. He received a botanical education from Bernard de Jussieu, Superintendent of the Jardin Royal des Plantes (Paris).

D’Incarville entered China via Macao and traveled from South China to Peking in North China where he settled. During his trip through China he had the opportunity to see the agricultural practices and when he was in the Lower Yangtze Region, he observed the Chinese varnish tree (Rhus verniciflua). So, he knew well lacquer-making techniques and bamboo paper.D'Incarville described and sent back seeds of several plants then unknown in Europe as a correspondent of the Jardin des Plantes. During his stay he was also actively involved in publishing scholarly material on China.

This work completes Breton's La Chine en miniature, also published by Nepveu, in 1811-1812.

99

101

58. simon Costumes et vues de la Chine, gravées en taille-douce par Simon, d'après les dessins de W. Alexandre. Avec des explications traduites de l'Anglais. Paris, Nepveu, 1815. 2 vols. in-12° (138 x 90 mm.): [ii], 77 ; [viii], 62 pp. ; 54 hand-coloured plates, including 26 double-page and 6 folding. Half brown leather, with blue marbled boards, gilt spine.

First edition of this scarce work containing 54 plates engraved by Simon after the drawings of William Alexander, which were published before in Staunton’s An authentic account of an Embassy to China (London, 1797).The plates represent costumes, ships, buildings, views, birds and scenes.This work, which was translated from English by Louis-Mathieu Langlès, contains also many notes and observations on the political and commercial relations between Great Britain and China.

Cordier, BS, 1859.

103

59. ELLIS (hEnri) Journal of the proceedings of the late embassy to China ; comprising a correct narrative of the public transactions of the embassy, of the voyage to and from China, and of the journey from the mouth of the Pei-Ho to the return to Canton. Interspersed with observations upon the face of the country, the polity, moral character, and manners of the Chinese nation. The whole illustrated by maps and drawings. london, John Murray, 1817. 1 vol. in-quarto (280 x 218 mm.): [4], vii, 526, [4] pp. ; 1 frontispiece portrait of Lord Amherst, 3 engraved maps (1 folding) and 7 handcoloured aquatint plates. Half calf, gilt decorated spine with red label.

First edition of this official account relating the events and adventures surrounding the Earl Amherst's embassy to China in 1816, sent out by King George III « to protest at the ill-treatment of British subjects », but in reality to establish trade relations with the Chinese government. This embassy was unsuccessful for protocol reasons, like the two precedent missions of Charles Cathcart (1787) and George Macartney (1792-94). Amherst and his retinue were sent home in disgrace after he refused to “kow-tow” (nine strikings of the fore-head on the ground) at his presentation to Emperor Khien Lung in Peking.Sir Henry Ellis (1788-1855), a noted diplomat and historian, served as the third commissioner. He was not impressed by the Chinese, whom he considered xenophobic, ultra-traditional, and « uninteresting ».

On the return voyage, their ship, the Alceste, was wrecked in the Gaspar Strait and they only reached Batavia after a perilous journey of several hundred miles in an open boat.

Abbey Travel 536 ; Cordier, BS, 2393 ; Lust, 509; Löwendahl, 791.

105

60. BEAUMONT (françois-mariE marchant dE) Beautés de l'histoire de la Chine, du Japon et des Tartares, ou tableau des principaux événements de l'histoire de ces peuples, belles actions et maximes de leurs grands hommes et de leurs sages ; traits singuliers de vertu et de piété filiale; notions sur le gouvernement, la religion, les moeurs, les usages, les sciences, les arts et le commerce de ces pays. Paris, à la Librairie d'éducation d'Alexis Eymery, 1818. 2 vols. in-8° (170 x 103 mm.): [2], 8, 435 pp. ; [6], 480 pp. ; 12 engraved plates. Contemporary full sheep, spines gilt with black labels.

First edition of this rare children's book on the history of China and its dynasties and Japan. The 12 coloured plates describe the traditional life and customs of Chinese (ceremonies and costumes).

Cordier, BS, 66; Löwendahl, 803.

61. GROSIER (JEan-BaPtistE) De la Chine, ou description générale de cet Empire, rédigée d’après les mémoires de la Mission de Pé-kin. Ouvrage qui contient la description topographique des quinze provinces de la Chine , celle de la Tartarie , des îles et des divers États tributaires qui en dépendent; le nombre de ses villes ; le tableau de sa population ; les trois règnes de son histoire naturelle, rassemblés et donnés pour la première fois avec quelque étendue; et l'exposé de toutes les connoissances acquises et parvenues jusqu'ici en Europe sur le gouvernement, la religion, les lois, les moeurs, les usages, les sciences et les arts des Chinois. Paris, Pillet & Arthus Bertrand, 1818-20. 7 vols. in-8° (208 x 132 mm.): [10], lxxx, 402 pp. ; [4], 552 pp. ; [4], 464 pp. ; [4], 512 pp. ; [4], 468 pp. ; [4], 475 pp. ; [4], 472 pp. ; with 2 folding maps. Contemporary red morocco with gilted edges. From the library of Marie Louise, duchess of Parma (crowned cypher on both covers of the bindings).

Third extended edition of this interesting and detailed work on China, based on Jesuit reports.In his Histoire générale de la Chine which ends with the death of the Kangxi emperor in 1722, François-Marie-Anne de Moyriac de Mailla (1669–1748) drew extensively upon Chinese sources including Zhu Xi’s Tongjian Gangmu, the famous Chinese Annals. The original manuscript was kept in Lyon in 1737. With the abrogation of the Society of Jesus (Dominus ac Redemptor, 1773) it came into the hands of Grosier who had it published.

Abbot Jean-Baptiste Gabriel Alexandre Grosier (1743-1823) aimed at completing Mailla’s work. In 1785 he brought out a supplement entitled Description générale de la Chine ou Tableau de l'Etat Actuel de cet Empire which brings the history up to 1780. This supplement was also published simultaneously as volume XIII of Mailla’s work. The second edition (in 8 vo.) appeared in 1787.A considerable part of the work is devoted to natural history. The plates depict Chinese imperial ceremony and artefacts.

Cordier, BS, 61-62; Löwendahl, 646- 813.

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62. SHOBERL (frEdEric) The world in miniature: China, containing illustrations of the manners, customs, character and costumes of the people of the Empire, accompanied by thirty coloured engravings […]. London, Ackerman, 1823. 2 vols. in-12° (143 x 92 mm.): [2], xiv, 208, [2] pp. ; [4], 257 pp. ; 30 full-page coloured engravings. Half red morocco with gilt spine.

First edition of this illustrated book from the series “The world in miniature” published in 43 volumes between 1820 and 1828 by the London publisher Rodolphe Ackerman. Frederic Shoberl (1775–1853), also known as “Frederick Schoberl”, was an English journalist, editor, translator, writer, and sometimes illustrator. The series resembles a similar series published in France by Nepveu, who published a series of books with similar descriptions of different countries and regions of the world. In total 25 regions and countries were described and published, starting in 1811 with La Chine en miniature by Breton de la Martinière in 4 volumes, which served as model for Schoberl’s work. The plates are from the French series, although placed in a different order.The series, which was one of many to be edited by Frederic Shoberl (1775-1853) for Ackerman was announced « to increase the store of knowledge concerning the various branches of the great family of Man, not only for adults, but also keeping in view the instruction and amusement of the juvenile student ».

109

63. BAZIN dE MALPIÈRE (d.) La Chine. Moeurs, usages, costumes, arts et métiers, peines civiles et militaires, cérémonies religieuses, monuments et paysages d’après les dessins du Père Castiglione, du peintre chinois Pu-Qua, de W. Alexandre, Chambers, Dadley […] avec des notices explicatives et une introduction. Paris, Goujon-Formentin-Firmin Didot, 1825-1827. 2 vols. in-folio (360 x 265 mm.): [6], 30 ; [5] with 2 frontispieces and 84+96 handcoloured lithographed plates, each with one leaf of descriptive text, 4 leaves of engraved musical notation including hand-coloured vignette, 2 additional decorative titles and map of Peking at end. Contemporary purple/brown morocco-backed boards, spines in five compartments with raised bands, lettered in gilt ; preserved in cloth embroidered slipcase with toggles.

First edition, rare to be found complete, of this huge collection of attractively lithographed copies of scenes from Chinese life of the mid-Ch’ing period containing 180 hand-coloured lithographed plates by Deveria, Régnier, Schaal, Schmit and Vidal after Castiglione, Pu-Qua, W. Alexander, Chambers, Dadley and others.This scarce work, issued from 1825 to 1827 in 30 parts, each containing 6 hand-coloured lithographic plates, is partly copied from the engraved plates in William Alexander’s picturesque representations of the dress and manners of the Chinese (London, 1815) and from Mason’s work The costume of China - The punishments

of China (London, 1800-1801) to which Bazin de Malpière added a caption of his own inspired from missionaries and travellers’ writings.« On prend dans ces petits tableaux une idée très exacte des ameublements, des objets d’utilité et du goût des ornements. C’est là surtout ce que l’éditeur avait en vue ; et l’on peut dire qu’il a entrepris de faire en Chine, avec l’aide des naturels, une sorte de voyage pittoresque, dont les résultats ne sont guère moins instructifs qu’agréables à parcourir. Les figures isolées ou groupées qui font voir des princes, des magistrats, des militaires des marchands, des artisans, des laboureurs, des femmes, des religieux, etc. donnent une idée plus complète de l’habillement des Chinois des deux sexes et de toutes les conditions, que les descriptions des voyageurs » (J.P. Abel Rémusat, in Journal des Savants, January 1827).

Cordier, BS, 69 ; Lust, 60; Colas, 1957.

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64. TIMKOVSKI (EGor fEdorovitch) Voyage a Peking, à travers la Mongolie en 1820 et 1821. Traduit du russe par M. N******, revu par M. J.-B. Eyries. Publié avec des corrections et des notes par M. J. Klaproth. Paris, Librairie Orientale de Dondey-Dupre, 1826-27. 3 vols. including : - 2 vols. in-8°(212 x 135 mm.): [8], XII, 480 ; [4], 459 – 1 atlas vol. large in-quarto (337 x 255 mm.): 32 pp. ; 1 lithographed title, 3 lithographed maps and plans (of which 1 large folding map of China and Mongolia with an itinerary from Kiakhta to Peking through the Gobi desert, 1 double-page plan of the Forbidden City in Peking, and 1 double-page plan of the building of the Russian embassy), and 8 lithographed plates with copies after Chinese artists and other drawings with Chinese in costumes, Chinese women playing musical instruments, etc. Recent half-calf with marbled boards.

First French edition of this travel account on the voyages of the Russian Missions to Peking via Mongolia in 1820-1821 by Egor Federovitch Timkovski (1790-1875), including a plan of the Forbidden City. Timkovwki was one in a series of diplomats sent every ten years by Russia to China. The Russians had maintained a church and school in Peking since 1728, and their trade and diplomatic ties with the Chinese were closely maintained. Russian missions to Peking were regularly taking place after the signing of a formal treaty between the two countries. No others then the Russians have had the opportunity to study

the Chinese country so thoroughly. Unfortunately, only few accounts of these voyages exist and the present account is one of the first published accounts by a Russian of his travels in those regions. The work contains information on the country of the Kalkas, the desert of Gobi, the territory of the Sounite Mongols, Peking, dress and laws of the Chinese, conversations with Catholic Missionaries, Turkestan, Little Bucharia, the country of the Soungarians, the Chinese army, the manners and customs of the inhabitants, the geography and ethnography of Mongolia and the country of the Tsakhars. The book also contains corrections, notes and an appendix by Julius von Klaproth (1783-1835), a prominent oriental scholar. The original Russian edition, entitled Puteshestvie v Kitai chrez Mongoliiu, v 1820 i 1821 godakh, was published in 1824 and translated into French by Jean Baptiste Benoit Eyriès (1767-1846). According to Lust an English version was translated by Hannibal Evans Loyd (1771-1847) from the French work, published in 1827.

Lust, 551 ; Cordier, BS, 2473-2474 ; Morrison II, 254-255; Löwendahl, 853.

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65. [anonymous] La Chine avec ses beautés et ses singularités, ou lettres écrites de Canton sur les moeurs, les usages des Chinois, la grande muraille, la tour de porcelaine, les iles flottantes etc. Paris, Raymond-Bocquet, 1838. 2 vols. in-12° (142 x 90 mm.) : [6], 216 pp. ; [6], iv, [1], 219, [32] pp. ; 16 engraved plates. Half red calf with marbled boards, spine gilt with green and black labels, red edges.

Very scarce French edition of this account written on enthusiastic tone.This work contains many details on Chinese customs and education. The descriptions insist particularly on the most attractive and unusual Chinese monuments and sites : the Great Wall, the Porcelain Tower, the floating islands, the terrace mountains etc.

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66. ALLOM (thomas) & WRIGHT (GEorGE) China in a series of views, displaying the scenery, architecture and social habits of that ancient Empire. london, Fischer, Son & Co, 1843. 4 vols. in-quarto (275 x 220 mm.): [8], 96 pp. ; [6], 72 pp. ; [4], 68 pp. ; [6], 56 pp ; 4 steel-engraved title pages and 124 steel-engraved plates by Allom. Original green morocco over marbled boards, gilt spine and edges.

First edition of this steel-plate view book. Thomas Allom (1804-1872) was a noted topographical illustrator and Royal Academician. Although he traveled widely throughout his career, many of his Chinese illustrations were based on the works of earlier artists - Lieutenant Frederick White, R.M., Captain Stoddart, R.N. and R. Varnham, for example - rather than on his firsthand views of China. Even though Thomas Allom's illustrations may not have been based on firsthand views, they do hold a significant place in history. In the 18th and early 19th centuries, the Western world was becoming quite intrigued by Chinese culture and decor, but notions of what China looked like were often vague and incomplete.

Allom's illustrations, more than any other body of work up until

that time, helped to provide a clearer picture of Imperial China,

though certainly not a perfect one. A common criticism is that his

images present a view of China that is too idealistic, and indeed,

the land does take on an almost dreamy, mystical aura in many of

them. These imprecisions aside, what Allom did was to provide the

West with a view of China as comprehensive as could be expected

near the middle of the 19th century.

The engravings show architecture and scenic views, mainly of the

South-East (Hong-Kong, Canton, Macao, Nanjing, Shanghai) but

also several images of Peking and Yehol.

Accompanying the engravings are original commentaries by

George Newenham Wright, a Protestant missionary who had spent

some considerable time in China.

The book was a commercial success. Allom presented a copy to the

French King Louis-Philippe during a private audience in 1846 and

the King pronounced himself “highly gratified”.

Cordier, BS, 80-81 ; Lust, 363; Löwendahl, 986.

67. CUNYNGHAME (arthur) China and the Chinese, being an aide-de-camp's recollections of service in China, a residence in Hong-Kong and visits to other islands in the Chinese seas. London, Saunders and Otely, 1844. 1 vol. in-8° (180 x 125 mm.) : [4], x, 374 pp. ; 4 coloured plates and many illustrations in the text. Maroon leather with pictorial gilt spine and gilt edges.

First edition. The army officer Arthur Augustus Thurlow Cunynghame (1812-1884) was commissioned into the 60th Rifles in 1830 and was active in the First Chinese Opium War (1839-42) and in the Crimean War (1853-56). China had hardly been a topical subject among the general British public. Like the missionaries before, British officers wrote accounts of their experiences : a number of memoirs of the Opium War were published at that time and contributed to develop public awareness. Among those are Lord Robert Jocelyn, K.S. Mackenzie, Commander J. Elliot Bingham, Lt Alexander Murray etc. Many of these narratives were reprinted in the United States.The present work covers Cunynghame’s career in China, where he was present at the capture of Ching-keang-foo and the investment of Nankin, both of which are described in this comprehensive narrative. The lithographs are from drawings mostly by servicemen of the period.

Cordier, BS, 2370; Lust, 556.

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68. HALL (William) & BERNARD (William dallas) The Nemesis in China, comprising a history of the late war in that country, with an account of the colony of Hong-Kong. From notes of Captain W.H. Hall, and personal observations by W.D. Bernard. London, Henry Colburn, 1848. 1 vol. in-8° (198 x 125 mm.): [4], xxix, [6], 399 pp., 4 folding maps, 3 plates, figures in the text. Green morocco, gilt arms of Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, gilt spine, edges gilt, watered white silk endpaper.

Fourth edition of this work first published in 1844 under the title “Narrative of the voyages and services of the Nemesis from 1840 to 1843” (London, H. Colburn).Sir William Hutcheon Hall (1797?-1878) commanded the Nemesis during the Opium War operations, an iron paddle-steamer especially constructed at Liverpool for the East India Company. It was fitted with a sliding keel, had a light draught, and carried comparatively heavy armament. The Nemesis was the first iron steamer to round the Cape. Based on notes by William Hutcheon Hall, this work is considered to be the best account of the Opium War (1839-1842). In addition to abundant information on China, the voyage visited Madeira, St. Thomas and Prince Islands, Cape Town, Mozambique, the Comoro Islands, Ceylon, Penang, Singapore, Manila, and Macao.

Provenance : Sir William Hutcheon Hall offered this copy to Tsar Nicholas I of Russia, whom he met through Princess Lubormiska (1820-1894), famous for her beauty and her cosmopolitism. But during the Crimean War (1853-1856), the english captain became the enemy of Russia, with the consequence that the Tsar sent back the book to the Princess. This is described in detail on the frontpage – in French – as follows: « Ce livre a appartenu à la Princesse Hedwige Lubomirska (1820-1894), née Princesse Jablonowska, fille de la princesse Thérèse Jablonowska, célèbre pour sa beauté, surnommée au congrès de Vienne la femme aux trois empereurs. La Princesse Lubomirska faisait de longs et fréquents séjours à l’étranger et un jour en Italie, elle contracta des relations d'amitié avec un marin anglais, le capitaine W. H. Hall, qui dans les années quarante avait commandé la Némésis, premier yacht à vapeur appartenant à l'Angleterre. L’Empereur Nicolas Ier distinguait particulièrement la princesse Lubomirska et pendant trois étés elle avait été son hôte, habitant le Palais Anglais à Peterhof. L’Empereur venait familièrement chez la Princesse et pendant une de ses fréquentes visites, il rencontra chez elle le capitaine Hall qui lui fut présenté. L’Empereur questionna le capitaine sur son voyage en Chine et Hall, enhardi par l'aménité du souverain demande l’autorisation de lui offrir la description de son voyage à bord de la Nemesis. Revenu en Angleterre, le capitaine fit spécialement relier le présent exemplaire aux armes de l'Empereur et l'envoya à la Princesse qui le remit à l'Empereur. L'été de l’année 1854 trouva la Princesse réinstallée au Palais Anglais; la

guerre de Crimée battait son plein et l'escadre anglaise menaçait de bombarder Cronstadt. Le capitaine W. H. Hall commandait un des navires de l’escadre ennemie. L'Empereur plus d'une fois taquinait la Princesse sur la défection de son ami et un jour lui rapporta le présent volume en lui disant : "Non, décidément, je ne peux plus garder le livre de votre perfide ami, - renvoyez le lui".Ce récit ainsi que le don de ce livre m’ont été fait par la Princesse, que je connaissais intimement pendant les dernières dix sept années de sa vie qu’elle acheva dans sa terre patrimoniale de Dermaù, en Volhynie. Eugénie Podhorecka, née Goguel »

Lust, 559 (3rd edition) ; Cordier BS 1758.

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69. FORTUNE (roBErt) A journey to the tea countries of China ; including Sung-Lo and the Bohea hills ; with a short notice of the East India Tea Company's tea plantations in the Himalaya mountains. London, John Murray, 1852. 1 vol. in-8°(220 x 144 mm.): xv, 398 pp., 17 illustrations including tinted frontispiece, extra engraved title-page in red & black, 1 coloured map showing tea districts, 2 plates (one tinted), numerous engraved illustrations in the text. Recent three quarter calf over marbled boards, raised bands, gilt decoration on spine.

First edition of this scarce account of Robert Fortune's travels.Robert Fortune (1812-1880), Scottish botanist - one of the greatest 19th century plant hunters - first visited China in 1842, as a collector for the Royal Horticultural Society. In 1848 he returned to China, this time on behalf of the East India Company, to collect plants and seeds of the tea-shrub. The tea growing methods of the Chinese were secret so he had to disguise himself as a Chinese native, and by so doing, learnt their secret ways.

In 1851 Fortune successfully introduced two thousand tea plants and seventeen thousand sprouting seeds into the north-west provinces of India. He also discovered numerous trees and shrubs, some of which are now named after him. In this work, he provides excellent descriptions of Hong Kong and China, of Chinese customs, industry, language and flora, missionary activity, opium consumption, and the cultivation and processing of tea.

Cordier, BS, 2116 ; Abbey, Travel, 529.

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70. OLIPHANT (laurEncE) Narrative of the earl of Elgin’s mission to China and Japan in the years 1857, ’58, ’59. Edinburgh, 1859. 2 vols. in 8° (220 x 150 mm.) : xiii, (1) 493; xi, 496 pp.; with 20 coloured litho plates, 5 folding maps, numerous b/w engravings. Richly gilt half blue morocco over pebbled blue cloth, marbled edges.

This is the major eyewitness account of the British incursion

into China which became known as the Second Opium War,

and which finalized the opening of the country. Oliphant

was private secretary to Lord Elgin during his mission there.

Throughout his travels, he paid close attention to Chinese daily life, the military situation, and its global political ramifications.James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin (1811-1863) became in 1857 British High Commissioner to China and travelled to China and Japan in 1858-59 where he led the bombing of Canton and oversaw the end of the Second Opium War by signing the Treaties of Tianjin on 26 June 1858. Later, on 24 October 1860, he also signed the Convention of Beijing which stipulated that China was to cede part of Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong to Britain.

Cordier BS, 2376.

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71. FORTAVION (G.c. dE) La guerre de Chine, grand panorama illustré historique et anecdotique. Texte et dessins par G.C. de Fortavion. Paris, Guérin-Muller, 1862. 1 vol. oblong in-folio (315 x 470 mm.) unpaginated : title-leaf, [16] text leaves, 16 lithographed plates by Haguenthal. Contemporary publisher’s boards, upper cover with handcoloured lithographed view, lower cover with b /w lithographed view of Tianjin.

First edition. The attractive plates show details of fleets, battles and encampments, during General Montauban's campaign in China with the allied army in 1860. The views include Canton, the procession of the Chinese plenipotentiaries at the camp in Tien-Tsin, the Summer Palace, the taking of Pekin and the triumphal entry of the allied armies in Peking.

Cordier, BS, 4146 ; Löwendahl, 1625.

72. FLEMING (GEorGE) Travels on horseback in Mantchu Tartary: being a summer's ride beyond the great wall of China. London, Hurst & Blackett, 1863. 1 vol. in-8°(250 x 165 mm.): xiii, 579 pp. ; 1 chromolithograph frontispiece, 54 wood-engraved illustrations, 1 folding map. Three quarter red morocco, marbled boards, raised bands, gilt spine.

First edition of this uncommon account by George Fleming, who traveled with a companion on horseback between Tien-Tsin and Moukden in 1861 and provided an interesting narrative of the Chinese military, the punishment of prisoners, the mutilated feet of women, customs, superstitions, the spy system, the Great Wall of China, the veterinarians and the topography.

Cordier, BS, 2747.

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73. RENNIE (david) Peking and the Pekingese, during the first year of the British Embassy at Peking […]. London, 1865. 2 vols. in-8° (190 x 130 mm.): xix, 351 pp. ; x, 332 pp. ; 24 b/w engravings (including 2 title page vignettes) and 1 folding map. Contemporary green calf, gilt spine with red and orange labels.

First edition of Rennie’s account relating the first year of the British legation at Peking.David Field Rennie ( ?-1868) was a British physician attached to Her Majesty’s embassy (in 1861) and a writer who crafted his diary with respect and sympathy for the customs and manners of Peking in a way that was rare in that era. In 1861, after the conclusion of the Second Opium War, French and British Ministers made their way to Peking to establish their respective legations.

On the afternoon of March 26th 1861, Frederick Bruce, the

first British minister to China to reside in Peking, entered the

grounds of the former palace of Duke I-liang, and the history

of the old British Legation begun.

Rennie confirms in the preface to his book the importance of

this inaugural period of foreign diplomatic residence in the

capital : « A few months after Her Majesty’s Legation had been

established in Peking, a feeling began to be entertained by its

members, that, with a view to future publication, some record

should be kept of the various incidents which were from day to

day occurring, during what may be termed the inaugural period

of foreign diplomatic residence at the Capital, the most important

event in the modern history of Anglo-Chinese intercourse ».

Peking and the Pekingese in Rennie’s record of this period.

74. WILLIAMSON (alExandEr) Journeys in North China, Manchuria and Eastern Mongolia; with some account of Corea. By the Rev. Alexander Williamson, agent of the National Bible Society of Scotland. With illustrations and two maps. London, Smith, Elder & Co., 1870. 2 vols. in-8° (185 x 130 mm.): [4], xx, 444 pp. ; [4], viii, 442 pp., 2 engraved frontispieces, 9 illustrations, 7 plates and 2 folding maps. Half calf with green title labels.

First Edition of this scarce travel account.Alexander Williamson (1829-1890) was a Scottish Protestant missionary sent to China by the London Missionary Society. After less than three years, he was forced to return home due to severe illness.He went back to China a second time as first agent for the National Bible Society of Scotland. From 1864 till 1869, his itineraries in the cause of Bible distribution made him travel far and wide, going over much land new to protestant mission. He went over North China, making excursions into Manchuria and Mongolia, a considerable enterprise in those days among early pioneers. At the end of the journeys, he published two volumes of his travel.The first part of the work consists of a kind of gazetteer account of Northern China, full of statistics and topographical details. The second part contains

the journal of his travels. The work also contains much curious information on the history, literature, and antiquities of China, and presents some notion of Chinese life, and of the scenery and agriculture of the Northern provinces, which at that time were little visited.

The author has a high opinion of the Chinese nation, which he believes is due to dominate the whole of Eastern Asia; and he altogether denies that they are less inclined than Europeans to advance and improve.

Cordier, BS, 2132.

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75. [conGrEGation of schEutvEld] Voyages de Bruxelles en Mongolie et travaux des missionnaires de la Congrégation de Scheutveld. Bruxelles, Casimir Coomans, 1873. 2 vols. in 1 vol. in-8° (241 x 156 mm.): [3], 196 pp. ; 292 pp. ; with 1 frontispiece portrait and 5 double-page illustrations (vol.1), 1 large folding map, 1 double-page plate, 1 double-page map (vol.2). Half green cloth, marbled boards, green title label.

First rare edition of this account of an early missionary travel from Belgium to Mongolia.In 1863 Théophile Verbiest (1823-1868), a former military chaplain, founded the Congregation of Scheutveld (also called Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary) for mission work in heathen countries. From the seminary in Belgium (Scheutveld College) the first mission was established in Mongolia, in 1863. In 1865, Verbiest and his four companions arrived in inner Mongolia, which was entrusted to the Congregation by Rome, and where they immediately began organizing small Christian communities. The congregation also operated in Northern and Southern Kansu, China, in Mongolia, the Belgian Congo, the Philippines, and among the Indians on the Mississippi. The great scientific and intellectual activity of the missionaries, expressed through 539 publications, was considered a necessary supplement to their apostolic labors.

76. BEAUVOIR (ludovic dE) Voyage autour du monde, Australie, Java-Siam-Canton-Pékin-Yeddo-San Francisco. Paris, E. Plon, 1875. 1 vol. in-8° (288 x 205 mm.): [8], 661, [4] pp.; 1 engraved frontispiece, 6 couloured engraved maps, 116 b/w engravings. Illustrations according to L. Breton, A. Marie, G. Saint-Elme engraved on wood by Smeeton, Tilly, Robert and Deschamps. Brown shagreen, raised bands, gilt spine and edges.

Second in-8° edition of this extremely popular account of the author's circumnavigatio. The count Ludovic De Beauvoir (1846-1929) arrived in Melbourne in 1866, and travelled extensively in Australia, trekking overland through the eastern states and Van Diemen's Land, and going the entire length of the east coast, heading for Malaya by way of the Great Barrier Reef and Torres Strait. « De Beauvoir's narrative of his travels became immensely popular on account of its perceptive observations of the royal courts of South East Asia, its description of a crocodile and rhinoceros hunt and so on » (Howgego III, p. 63). In Macao, De Beauvoir saw the last traces of the Portuguese slave trade. He also includes particularly good material on the Victorian goldfields, especially around Ballarat and Bendigo, but there is also a lively account of Melbourne, some thoughtful comments on the Australian aborigines he met in the bush, and a lengthy digression on the Burke and Wills expedition.

The last part of the book contains a relation of the author’s visit of Canton, Shanghai, Peking, the great wall and the Ming Tombs, Tientsin, its travel down the Pei-Ho on a barge and its meeting with Prince Kong and China’s Regent.

Chadenat II, 3122.

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77. [ESCAYRAC dE LAUTURE (stanislas d’)] Mémoires sur la Chine. Paris, Librairie du magasin pittoresque, 1877. 2 vols. in-folio (310 x 250 mm.) : 93, [5], 100, [4], 79 pp. ; 129, [2], 127, [3] pp. ; maps and plates, tables, and many illustrations in text. Half morocco, gilt spine.

Second edition of this work that appeared in instalments in 1864-65.Comte Pierre Henri Stanislas d'Escayrac de Lauture (1826-1868) was born into a French old aristocratic family. He learned many languages and worked for the French Foreign Minister. After the French Revolution of 1848, he abdicated his political responsibilities in order to travel and published many accounts. In 1860, he accompanied French forces to China (China campaign of 1860).

This work is divided into five parts : Introduction, history of the country, religions, government and customs. Escayrac de Lauture gives a negative image of the Chinese government and its officials. In fact, he was captured and imprisoned by the Chinese.

Cordier, BS, 91.

78. HüBNER (JosEPh von) Promenade autour du monde en 1871: Amérique - Japon - Chine. Paris, Hachette, 1877. 1 vol. in-quarto (355 x 275 mm.): 679 pp., 1 portrait of the author, richly illustrated with 316 wood-engravings after sketches or photographs taken by the author and by Boulanger, Crépon, Férat, François, Marie, de Neuville, Sorrieux etc. Half brown morocco, raised bands.

Fifth edition. Austrian diplomat, Baron Joseph Alexandre von Hübner (1811-1892) represented his country in France from 1849, then in Italy from 1865 till 1868. In the spring of 1871 Hübner left Ireland and crossed America from New York to San Francisco, then joined Yokohama, Yoshida, Hakoné, Yedo, Osaka, Kyoto, Nagasaki, Shanghai, Peking, Tien-Tsin, Hong-Kong, Canton and Macao, to end its journey in Marseille in January, 1872.

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79. ROCHECHOUART (JuliEn dE) Excursions autour du monde. Pékin et l'intérieur de la Chine […]. Paris, Plon, 1878. 1 vol. in-8° (179 x 118 mm.): [8], 355, [4] pp. ; 1 engraved frontispiece, 7 engraved plates. Half calf, marbled boards, gilt spine with brown label.

Rare first edition.As diplomat and French minister, Julien de Rochechouart travelled to China. One third of the whole book is devoted to a description of his voyage from Paris to Hongkong, another third to his voyage from Hong Kong to Peking, including a visit to Canton and a brief stay at Shanghai, and the remaining third includes an excursion to Mongolia.Rochechouart’s book is full of French morality and Chinese want of morality.It contains a series of lithographed illustrations taken from J. Thomson Illustrations of China and its people (1873).

Cordier, BS, 2139.

80. PIASSETSKY (PavEl iakovlEvich) Voyage à travers la Mongolie et la Chine. Traduit du russe avec l’autorisation de l’auteur par Aug. Kuscinski et contenant 90 gravures d’apres les croquis de l’auteur et une carte. Paris, Hachette et Cie, 1883. 1 vol. in-quarto (285 x 205 mm.): [10], 563 pp., with 1 route map, 1 frontispiece portrait and 90 wood-engravings (61 full-page). Half morocco with marbled boards, spine with gilt compartments and raised bands.

First French edition of this account of Piassetsky's

Russian expedition to China and Mongolia from

1874-75. First published in Russian 1880, this work was also thereafter published at London in 1884 as Russian Travellers in Mongolia and China. Dr Piassetsky participated in the scientific and commercial expedition of Sosnovsky and Matoussovsky across Siberia to Lake Baikal and Mongolia. They were among the first explorers to cross the entire Gobi Desert to Barkul and Lanjou, and took a circuitous route to Peking and Shanghai before returning to Mongolia again through the desert. This work is the only record of the expedition.

Cordier, BS, 2453.

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81. OUKHTOMSKI (EsPEr EsPErovitch) Voyage en Orient de son Altesse Impériale le Césarevitch. Grèce, Egypte, Inde (volume i), Indochine, Chine, Japon, Sibérie (volume ii), 1890-1891. Traduction de Louis Leger […]. Préface de A. Leroy-Beaulieu […]. Illustré de 178 compositions de N.-N. Karazine. Paris, Charles Delagrave, 1893. 2 vols. in-quarto (380 x 290 mm.): [6], xvi, 392, [4] pp. ; x, 381, [8] pp., with 1 engraved frontispiece portrait of Czar Nicholas II, 300 full-page or in-text illustrations by N.N. Karazine. Original green cloth binding with gilt coat of arms of Czar Nicholas II on covers, gilt spine.

First French edition, limited to 75 copies, of this official account of Czar Nicholas II’s journey as Czarevich to the Orient in 1890-91 (Nicholas II ruled from 1894 until his abdication on 15 March 1917). Czarevich Nicholas II travelled around the world, visiting especially strategic countries interesting Russian Empire. The second volume, published in 1874, deals with Far East (Indochina, China, Japan, Siberia). The author, Prince Esper Esperovich Oukhtomsky (1861-1921) Russian philosopher and writer, was a famous Orientalist known as one of greatest specialists in Buddhism. He was the personal escort and diary keeper of Czar Nicholas II during his journey to the Orient.The illustrator of this work, Nikolay Nikolaevich Karazin (1842-1908) was a Russian military officer, painter and writer, mostly known for his paintings depicting wars and exotic places.

Chadenat, 1686.

82. DUCKERTS (JulEs) La Chine en 1899, rapport de la mission commerciale de Jules Duckerts, Consul Général chargé d'affaires de Belgique. Verviers, Ch. Vinche, 1900. 1 vol. in-8° (230 x 150 mm.) : viii, 367 pp. Original green cloth, title gilt lettered. Uncut.

First edition of this critical review of a Belgian commercial exploration in China. Jules Duckerts, Belgian diplomat and chargé d’affaires, presents China from an economic point of view : he lists in particular the Chinese mineral resources, the different industries and all forms of trade (Opium, imports and exports) ; he also studies the financial system (coinage, banks), the commercial law, the communications network (post offices, telegraphic system) and the means of transportation (harbours).This approach aimed to satisfy commercial but also political and strategic interests.

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83. OGAWA (kazumasa) The decoration of the palace buildings in Peking with eigthy plates. Report of College of Engineering Imperial University of Tokyo. Tokyo, K. Ogawa, 1906. 1 oblong portfolio (370 x 480 mm.): [6], 57 pp. text ; 80 numbered plates plus 1 unnumbered, of which 20 coloured, including 3 watercolours and 2 large folded colour plans. Decorative silk covered box.

First and limited edition (copy numbered 198) of this very rare and important reference and visual record of the decoration of the imperial palaces at the beginning of the twentieth century - a time when, due to the decline of the Qing dynasty, they had been untouched for some time.This portfolio, edited by the famous Japanese photographer Kazumasa Ogawa (1860-1929), was published by the Commission sent by the Imperial

University of Tokyo to Peking in 1901, following the relief of the foreign legations from the Boxers and the occupation of Peking by the Eight Allied Army.A huge variety of decorative features of the palace buildings in Peking are illustrated. In addition to the decoration on the buildings, there are also a number of vignettes showing palace and hall interiors. The majority of the 80 plates are coloured to varying degrees in beige, grey, green and some red. Twenty plates were hand-coloured and mounted on black card. These include three delightful watercolours showing the Yiheyuan (Summer Palace), the Yingtai buildings on Nan Hai and the Qianqing Hall in the Forbidden City. The two map plates show a plan of the city of Peking and a plan of the Forbidden City on one, the other showing the Xi Yuan park of the three lakes (Bei Hai, Zhong Hai and Nan Hai) adjacent to the Gugong.

84. WRIGHT (arnold) & CARTWRIGHT (H. A.) Twentieth century impressions of Hongkong, Shangai and other treaty ports of China : their history, people, commerce, industries, and resources. London, Lloyd’s Greater Britain Publishing Company, Ltd.,1908. 1 vol. in-folio (310 x 240 mm.) : [4], 848 pp. profusely illustrated in half-tone. Original red shagreen binding with engraved view on the upper cover, gilt spine and edges.

First Edition. Highly attractive, well-illustrated encyclopaedic study of Britain’s interests in China at the turn of the 20th century. The majority of the text relates to Hong Kong with separate sections on finance, education, flora and fauna, industries (silk, tea and cotton), sports, and the life and customs of the native Chinese population. A similar section on Shanghai is followed by 200 pages summarising the other treaty ports and foreign settlements of China.

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85. MÉLOTTE dE LAVAUX (adriEn dE) Les derniers jours d'une légation. Bois et eaux-fortes d’Alfred Martin. Liège, Imprimeries Nationales des Militaires Mutilés et Invalides de la Guerre, 1925. 1 vol. in-quarto (320 x 250 mm.): 85 pp., printed in red, 28 woodcut engravings and 3 original etched engravings. Text in French. Bound in half brown leather, gilt spine.

First and only limited edition published (n° 167 of an edition of 575 copies) of this illustrated account of the last days of the Belgian legation in Beijing, before its destruction by the Boxer rebels in 1900.This rare work, written by Adrien Melotte De Lavaux (1874-1942) and illustrated by Alfred Martin (1880-1950), was produced in the spirit of a "livre d'artiste" by the Imprimeries Nationales des Militaires Mutiles et Invalides de la Guerre.

86. [NACHBAUR (alBErt)] Les images populaires chinoises. Pékin, Atelier Na Che Pao, 1926. 1 vol. large in-folio (520 x 390 mm): 181 p., 40 plates (some folding). Black cloth over orange silk covered boards, gilt title label on upper cover.

Rare edition published in a limited edition of 200 copies.Albert Nachbaur (1879-1933) was born in a family of French architects and decorators. He fled to China after World War I. There, he became bookseller, journalist and created his own book house - the “Editions Albert Nachbaur” - and published many books about China. Although he associated with officials (ministers and European ambassadors), he was very interested in Chinese popular customs and traditions. The illustrations and cartoons of this charming book are attributed to Arthur Szyk (1894-1951); the plates in garish colors on thin paper are those that were used for household decoration at Chinese festivals.

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87. JOWETT (hardy) Chinese costumes : illustrations hand painted. Peking, Chinese Painting Association, 1932. 1 vol. in-folio (320 x 220 mm.): [iv] pp. ; 24 handcoloured plates (each plate accompanied by a guard sheet with descriptive letterpress). Original decorated silk covered boards, with ties, slightly faded and frayed edges.

First edition. « The 24 illustrations in this book are invaluable hand painted, every picture, authentic in detail and colour, and wonderfully executed, the collection is a marvel of accuracy and a miracle of cheapness. The actual artists are members of a famous family of Court Painters under the late Manchu Dynasty. The office has been handed down from generation to generation, only ceasing with the defunct dynasty » (Foreword by Hardy Jowett). The illustrations depict costumes of the Chinese emperor and empress, military, Manchu court, Buddhist monk, Lama priest, mourning robes, Mongolian costumes, etc.

Cat. 20

141

With the invention of photography a new era in the rendering of travellers’ impressions of China

begins. The transmission of their impressions had, after a period of evolution, become more direct,

the dissemination more prolific and perhaps better suited to the commercial purposes of the fast

developing markets of publishers and printers. Photographers continue to act as artists, but more

and more their personal way of viewing things makes them journalists. The western eye is no longer

exclusively turned towards beauty, but shows busy towns, industrial developments and the hardships

of poverty and war. The collection of photographs presented in the exhibition has a wide scope and

perfectly illustrates this evolution. The realm of photographic testimonials of China is introduced

by Jules Itier, a French customs inspector and amateur daguerrotypist, with his Journal d’un voyage

en Chine en 1843,1844,1845 (Paris, 1848-1853). Itier’s daguerrotypes are the earliest photographic

witnessess of China. The daguerrotype method of obtaining permanent images with a camera was

first presented in 1839, but daguerrotypes were unique, so we find them reproduced here as tinted

lithographs (cat. 88). Theoretically, albumen prints could be duplicated, but the process was slow and

expensive and moreover the image was not stable. It is obvious that these photographic processes

were not yet adapted to or suitable for the mass production of printed books. The very rare mid

19th-century album, Album Chinois (cat. 89), contains 41 albumen prints, among which 17 original

portraits and a number of reproductions of older material. It aims at giving us an overview of Chinese

society. Modern photography arrives with John Thomson’s Illustrations of China and its people (London,

1873-1874), containing no less than 218 woodburytypes, showing sweeping landscapes, government

officials, everyday life in all its aspects (cat. 91). The woodburytype had been developed by Walter

Woodbury in 1864, and until 1900 it was the only commercially successful and qualitatively valuable

method for reproducing photographic illustration material. From the 1890’s onwards more and

more photographs appear in commercial editions - Kelly and Walsh are a good example of this trend

(cat. 93). They published in their Shanghai based company several beautiful albums. The medium of

photography allowed a rendering of actual developments as seen in Views of the North China Affair

1900 (Tokyo, 1901) by the Japanese photographer Yamamoto, with photogravures showing images of

the Boxer Uprising (cat. 99). Also remarkable is the album Dalian showing images of an industrial town

which at the time of publishing (1902) was in one way or another “rented” from the Russians (cat. 100).

Documents from this period are extremely rare. Another photomechanical printing process that offers

accurate reproductions is the collotype, used in Ein Tagebuch in Bildern (Berlin, 1902) by Mumm von

Schwarzenstein (cat. 101). Such photographs taken by occasional residents, diplomats, officers in China

were then en vogue. A true treasure find are the two hundred black and white original photographs

(Hankow, 1907-1911) which offer an account of an expatriate’s way of living in the beginning of the

20th century (cat. 106). Chitty’s Things seen in China (London, 1922) is a beautiful book, for the traveller

as well as for the interested reader at home, wishing to dig into the subject and to learn more than the

obvious (cat. 114). Photography also played a role in scientific research, as can be seen in the work of

Émile Licent, Hoang ho, Pai ho, Loan ho, Leao ho (Tientsin, 1924). In this spectacular book of the French

Jesuit geographer the photographs have turned into a complement to the maps (cat. 115).

All these photographs are silent witnesses of a world that is already partly gone, and of which we hope

that the still existing remnants will continue to be preserved in situ as well as on paper.

88. ITIER (JulEs) Journal d'un voyage en Chine en 1843, 1844, 1845. Paris, Dauvin et Fontaine, 1848-1853. 3 vols. in-8° (218 x 140 mm.): 374, [2] pp. with 3 tinted lithographed views (after daguerreotypes), 1 handcoloured map, 1 engraved plate and 1 folding table. Later half calf with gilt spine.

First edition of Jules Itier’s account of his journey to China.Jules Eugène Alphonse Itier (1802-77) was French customs inspector and amateur daguerreotypist. Between 1842 and 1843 he travelled to Senegal, Gua-deloupe and India. In December 1843, Itier was sent to accompany Théodore de Lagrené on his journey to China, where he has been dispatched by Louis Philippe to conclude a commercial treaty. In China, Itier documented the conclusion of the Trea-ty of Whampoa and took a number of daguerreotypes of Chinese people and scenery in the Guangdong region. Although the daguerreotype reportedly reached China in the later stages of the First Opium

War, Itier's daguerreotypes are the earliest preserved photo-graphs of China. The frontispieces of these three volumes are lithographed by Freeman after Itier's photographs.

Cordier, BS, 2117; Lust 645 (vols 1-2 only); Löwendahl, 1093.

143

89. Photo alBum. Album Chinois. [Before 1860]. 1 vol. in quarto (290 x 220 mm): 41 albumen prints. Black cloth, blind stamped, red morocco label with gilt title.

This is a rare early Jesuit publication including 17 original portraits and reproductions of older prints and drawings made by Jesuits at the 18th century.It is stated in the introduction that « ce petit album est destiné à faire connaitre les véritables coutumes des habitants du Céleste Empire. On a taché de choisir un spécimen dans toutes les classes de la Société, depuis l’Empereur jusqu’aux simples ouvriers. On a réuni aussi les Portraits des Missionnaires de la Compagnie de Jésus, avec le costume qu’ils portaient, dans les premiers temps qu’ils évangélisaient la Chine, et avec celui qu’ils portent à présent. Les différents costumes et portraits, qu’on trouve dans cet album, ont été photographiés sur d’anciens modèles, ou envoyés dernièrement de Chine par les missionnaires eux-mêmes ».

The prints include portraits of famous Jesuits such as Father Ricci, Couplet, Borgnet, Lemaitre, Helot ; portraits of the Emperor, mandarins, a juggler, catechumens, thieves, workers, opium den, musicians.

L. Carrington Goodrich – Nigel Cameron “Portraits de Chine 1860-1912”, Ed. Aperture, New York, 1978, French edition, 1999, p. 130.

90. Photo alBum Album Chinois. [China, ca. 1860-1875]. 1 vol. in-quarto (320 x 270 mm.): 76 original photographs (5 hand-coloured) captioned in French, 1 pen & ink drawing. Red cloth covered board, front cover decorated with an illustration depicting three birds in bamboo, gilt spine.

Beautiful photographic album offering various views of landscapes, scenes of every day life, traditional crafts,

views of cities (Canton, Shanghaï, Nankin, Tokyo) and also of antique monuments.Although the anonymous author is an amateur photographer, these photographies weave a complex portrait of the Chinese society : a western look at China and its inhabitants that reveals paradoxically strangeness and sometimes horror, beauty and misery.

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91. THOMSON (John) Illustrations of China and its people. A series of two hundred photographs, with letterpress descriptive of the places and people represented. London, Sampson Low, Marston Low, and Searle, 1873-1874. 4 vols. in-folio (484 x 360 mm.): unpaginated, 96 plates with 218 woodbury-type reproductions of John Thomson photographs taken in the early 1870s, and substantial notes on each illustration. Half brown morocco, illustrated covers with gilt frieze, gilt edges.

First edition of this very important book, the first one to publish photographs of all parts of China.John Thomson (1837-1921), a pioneering Scottish geographer and traveller, was indeed the first known photographer to document the people and landscape of China for publication and dissemination to the Western world. Between 1868 and 1872, he travelled over 6,500 kilometers with his cumbersome camera and equipment, darkroom and chemicals capturing all aspects of Chinese life. The photographs in these four volumes show the many sides of China: sweeping landscapes, royalty and ruling classes, merchants and economic activity, everyday life, and the faces of men, women, and children.In a time when knowledge was derived from observation and classification it should not seem odd that Thomson desired a recognition not from the quality of his photographs, but from his contributions to general knowledge.

147

149

92. Photo alBum Peking. [ca. 1890-1900]. 1 vol. oblong format (110 x 85 mm): 24 silver print photographs, captioned in French. Half calf over paper boards, gilt decorated spine, calf corners, gilt edges.

The photographs include : the station, the wall, camels in depot, the building of the Chien Hew gate, Tombs of the Emperors, boat, Imperial Palace, street views of Chinese restaurant, funeral, chopper, tea-drinking, three poor children with baskets, butcher, rope-maker, rickshaws with horses and others, as well as pictures of the district of embassies and in particular the Belgian Embassy, a building that still exists today but houses services of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

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93. KELLY & WALSH Views of Shanghai during the great snowfall of 1893 (Jubilee year). Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, [1893]. 1 vol. oblong in-folio (285 x 385 mm.): [2], iii, with 12 photographs. Paper covered boards with illustration.

First and probably only edition of this photograph album. Shanghai's climate is described as one-third of the year tropical and the other two-thirds temperate. The time for snowfall is generally short in winter, and the snow seldom stays thick. However, the year 1893 – date of the photographs - recorded the lowest temperature in Shanghai : 10°C below zero was registered in January. The twelve photographs show several views of snow-covered streets and scenes of Shanghai, which radiate peace and quiet.

The famous Kelly & Walsh Limited, one of the oldest printing and publishing houses in Shanghai, was formed in 1876 through the merger of two local Shanghai booksellers : Kelly & Co. and F. and C. Walsh. Kelly & Walsh was active between the 1880s and the 1940s and published a very long list of quality books mainly on China and specializing in art books.

This photograph-album offers a double image of China at the turn of the 20th century : on the one hand, traditional China through photographs of costumes, peasants or every day life, on the other hand, some photographs revealing the modern reality of this period (warships, rail).

94. Photo alBum China. [ca. 1895-1900]. 1 vol. oblong in-quarto (360 x 270 mm) containing about 150 original photographs (medium or large format) captioned. Binding composed by 2 laquer plates, front cover decorated with a composition depicting a woman playing pan flute on a bird mounted and carved in mother of pearl and ivory.

This photographic album concerns the Shanghai region. We can suppose that most of photographs were taken by a German officer because of photographs depicting German soldiers and German troops (probably taken at Shanghai, during the Boxer Outbreak, 1900). Other photographs show views of Chinese cities (Shanghai, Peking, Hong Kong) or of little towns and villages (rural scenes, fishermen’s village). Monuments like the Great Wall and several pagodas are also photographed. Elsewhere, scenes of religious ceremonies and capital punishment captured the attention of the anonymous photographer.

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95. FAVIER (alPhonsE) Péking, histoire et description [...]. Peking, Imprimerie des Lazaristes au Pé’Tang, 1897. 1 vol. in-folio (355 x 275 mm.): xiv, 563 pp., 36 b.w. illustrations, 660 gravures, 124 phototypes, 24 collographies. Original publisher’s wrappers conserved in an embroidered and painted cloth box (392 x 310 mm).

First and limited edition (n° 14 of an unspecified limited edition) of this important and luxurious work on the political and social history of the ancient capital of Peking. Alphonse Favier (1807-1905) was at the head of the French Mission in North China and the Vicar apostolic of Peking. Living through the monthlong siege of the Beitang (North Church) during the Boxer Rebellion of 1900, he condemned the international relief expedition's excessive use of force against the Chinese rebels.Nicely printed on thick paper, this work contains an historical part and a descriptive part. The latter offers a detailed description of the capital and surroundings: its structure, monuments, customs, institutions, means of transportation, fauna and flora and art. The illustrations cover the art and architecture of the city, its mythology, philosophers, dynasties, Gengis Kahn, early Jesuit visitors and her Emperors. This work was awarded a price by the French Academy in 1896.

Cordier, BS, 218.

96. [ chamBrE dE commErcE dE lyon] La mission lyonnaise d'exploration commerciale en Chine, 1895-1897. Avec cartes, plans et gravures d’après les documents rapportés par la mission. Lyon, A. Rey et Cie, 1898. 2 parts in 1 vol. in-folio (315 x 225 mm.) : [8], xxxvi, 386, 473 pp. ; 9 maps and 344 photogravures. Half black leather with gilt spine.

First edition of this important work for French commercial interests in China. The mission of commercial exploration, organized by the Lyon Chamber of Commerce leaved Marseille in 1895, 6 months after the Treaty of Shimonoseki ending the First Sino-Japanese War. The mission was directed by Consul Rocher and then by Henri Brénier. This work is divided in two parts : the first part (Récits de voyages) is literary and artistic and the second part (Rapports commerciaux et notes diverses) is essentially commercial and practical.

Cordier, BS, 2160.

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97. HESSE-WARTEGG (Ernst von) Schantung und Deutsch-China : von Kiautschou ins heilige Land von China und vom Jangtsekiang nach Peking im Jahre 1898. Leipzig, J.J. Weber, 1898. 1 vol. in-quarto (256 x 185 mm.): vi, 294, [6] pp., 145 text photogravures (some coloured), 27 plates, 6 folding coloured facsimiles, 3 maps (2 folding). Text in German. Original pictorial blue cloth, original flyleaves, red edges.

First and rare edition of this fascinating description of China written by Ernst von Hesse-Wartegg (1851-1918) – Austro-German aristocrat, globetrotter and writer - during the short time called “Deutsch-China”. This work concerns the region administered by the German Empire. The existence of the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong (from 1841-1997) on the southern coast of China caused Germany to look for a good Chinese harbor for its own commercial and military interests. The Germans had previously identified a suitable territory for their needs, the Bay of Chiao-chou (Kiautschou ; Jiaozhou) in Shantung (now Shandong) : in 1860, a Prussian expeditionary fleet arrived in Asia and explored the region around Jiaozhou Bay. The following year the Treaty of Peking was signed. After journeys to China between 1868 and 1871, the geographer Baron Ferdinand von Richthofen recommended the Bay of Jiaozhou as a possible naval base.

On 1 November 1897 in a small fishing village then called Chingtao (now Qingdao ; Tsingtao in German), two German missionaries were murdered. This event gave Germany a pretext for seizing the area. In 1898, the Germans forced China to give them a concession and received a ninety-nine year leasehold in Shantung and additional extensive concessions in the Shantung Province.The colony was under the authority of the German Imperial Navy and not under the jurisdiction of the Reichs-Kolonial-Amt. The German authority wanted to develop the protectorate into a “model colony” and to further commercial growth. Although there were considerable efforts to develop commerce, communications, finance, industry, and an educational system for Chinese and Europeans, the colony never achieved total success.

This album contains early photographs of famous monuments and Chinese sites : the Great Wall, the gigantic stone figures scattered along the Avenue to the Ming Tombs (Nanking) and various triumphal archs, temples and gods. Some of them show rural scenes.

98. Photo alBum China. [ca. 1900-1905]. 1 vol. oblong in-quarto (215 x 295 mm.) with 75 original photographs. Black morroco and thick cloth, title lettering in gilt on front cover ; chemise and painted paper slipcase.

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99. YAMAMOTO (s.) Views of the North China Affair 1900. Tokyo, Hokushin Jihen Shashin Cho, 1901. 1 vol. oblong in-folio (260 x 380 mm.): [2], [1 pp. text with 114 photogravure illustrations. Captions to photographs in English and Japanese. Introductory text in Japanese. Pictorial wrappers schowing a scene of cavalry officers near a river with flames and smoke rising from a burning Peking in the background, stiched Japanese style.

Very scarce series of photographs (reproduced in photogravure) by the Japanese photographer Yama-moto documenting the Boxer Uprising of 1899-1900, a turning point in the history of China.The anti-foreign feeling growing in China resulting from the activities of Christian missionaries and a widespread belief in superstition by the uneducated class, fueled this peasant rebellion. The foreign embas-sies were besieged and missionaries and diplomats killed so troops from all nations were sent in to quell the uprising, which spread from Shandong across North China, including Beijing.

This album contains views of imperial palaces and sights of Peking, and also numerous photographs of foreign detach-ments and encampments in and around the Forbidden city, plus manœuvres outside the city walls of Peking ; some photographs represent military personnel.

100. Photo alBum. Dalian. [Dalian, 1902] 1 vol. oblong (267 x 380 mm.): unpaginated, with 36 photographs captioned in russian. Original wrappers, illustrated front cover. Sewed.

Dalian is located in one of the most developed industrial areas of China in the North Eastern part of the country. It is the second largest city of Lianing Province, 40 kilometres away from another famous city, Lüshunkou, formerly Port-Arthur. In the 1880’s, the Qing government constructed in Dalian loading bridges and fortifications with built-in cannons and it became a small town. The settlement was occupied by the British in 1858, returned to the Chinese in the 1880’s, and then occupied by Japan in 1895 during the first Sino-Japanese war. The Russian Empire in 1898 succeeded in leasing the Peninsula from the Qing Dynasty and a modern city was laid down in the name of Dalny. This album is a very rare testimony of Dalian at that period.

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101. MUMM von SCHWARZENSTEIN (alfons von) Ein Tagebuch in Bildern. Berlin, Graphische Gesellschaft, 1902. 1 vol. oblong format (360 x 240 mm.). Numbered 317. Followed by 268 plates with printed high-quality collotype black and white or sepia-toned photos, each with German subtitles showing sites and scenery in Peking, Jehol, Tientsin, Shanghai, Canton, Macao, Swatow, Amoy, the Yangtse. Half brown morocco over cloth boards, leather corners, coat of arms on side of cover, gilt title.

A superb photo-book showing the sites, scenery and street life in China at the very beginning of the XXth century, just after the Boxer Rebellion. The fact that there is no title-page as such seems to suggest that this album

was not for sale. It is probable that most copies were sent to

Peking, which explains that this is a very rare item.

The photos are particularly valuable for their historical contents.

Amongst them is the entry of German troops into Shanghai

on September 6th, 1900; the first steam-engine in Peking, the

confiscation of the instruments on the Peking observatory by

German and French troops; a service on the occasion of Queen

Victoria’s death in front of the Forbidden City; views of the German

embassy; portraits of German diplomats and Chinese dignitaries.

Thirez: Barbarian Lens; Western Photographers of the Qianlong Emperor’s European Palaces (1998), pp. 103-106.

102. Photo alBum. China. Kiautschau. Syfang, 1902-1904. 1 vol. oblong in-folio (273 x 355 mm.) with 175 original photographs mounted on cardboard. Lacquer album floral-decorated cover, with silver photo-plate on front cover, spine richly gilt.

Outstanding and interesting album from the ancient German colony, probably of a member of the Kaiser’s navy. The photographs show military parades and manœuvres, also bands and houses. Besides, some photographs offer a fascinating insight into the country and its inhabitants : native, street life and landscapes. It includes many views of Tsingtau and of railways.

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103. BOY-ED Peking und Umgebung. Mit 30 Photographien, 2 Karten und einem ehinesischen Stadtplan. Tientsin, Verlag der Brigade-Zeitung, 1906. 1 vol. large in-quarto (300 x 248 mm.): [8] pp., 46pp. text, 30 pasted to boards original photographs, 2 large folding maps and 1 plan of the Imperial City. Original red silk covered boards (Chinese titles).

First and limited edition printed in 720 copies by the printing office

of the German occupation forces. Very little is known about the

author, Boy-ed, who was first lieutenant and headed the German

detachment of howitzers in Peking during the Boxer rebellion.

The photographs depict military scenes (German officers, military

exercices) and show various buildings (houses of German officers),

particularly temples, in and around the city of Peking.

104. KOBERSTEIN (F.) Tientsin und Umgebung. Mit 21 Photographien und einem Plan. Tientsin, Verlag der Brigade-Zeitung, 1906. 1 vol. in-quarto (300 x 248 mm.): 41 pp. (text), 21 pasted to boards original photographs and a large folding map in rear pocket showing the Invasion of Allied Troops during the Boxer Rebellion. Original red silk covered boards with Chinese titles ; preserved in a chemise and a slipcase.

First and only limited edition (copy numbered 766) printed in 800 numbered copies in the printing office of E. Lee in Tientsin. This work is a very rare volume on Tianjin. Besides the 21 photographs depicting buildings, street scenes and landscape in and around the city of Tientsin, the volume includes an 11 page long narrative of how the city was affected by the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, about German dignitaries visiting the city in the course of time, and a listing of the rank and file of the German military stationed in Tianjin and Shandong until 1906.An interesting example of local Chinese printing for the German occupation forces.

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105. OGAWA (kazumasa) & OKUYAMA (tsunEGoro) The Imperial city of Peking. Photographs of palace buildings of Peking compiled by the Imperial Museum of Tokyo, collotyped from the negatives taken by K. Ogawa, F.R.P.S. With explanatory notes in Japanese by C. Ito, Kogakuhakushu, English by T. Tomiogi, Bungakushi, Chinese by A. Aoyage. Tokyo, K. Ogawa, 1906. 2 vols. oblong portfolio (360 x 470 mm.): -Volume 1 : [6], 18 pp. (descriptive booklet : text in English, Japanese & Chinese) and 65 collotype plate, five of which fold out. - Volume 2 contains plates 66-172 (fac-similes of some plates). Booklet covered in stiff unillustrated thin stock paper. In gilt tooled leather box.

First and limited edition (copy numbered 442) of this other very rare Kazumasa Ogawa’s work (see cat. 83).The conclusion of the Boxer Uprising in 1901 lead to Japan receiving international recognition as a major political power and becoming one of the allied powers occupying China. The Imperial University of Tokyo established a Commission headed by Professor Chiuta Ito of the College of Engineering to investigate the "arrangement, construction and decoration of the Palace Building in the 'Forbidden City' and other Palace Grounds." Kazumasa Ogawa was the photographer for this Commission. The work of the Commission became the property of the Imperial Museum of Tokyo. The Museum authorized K. Ogawa to publish « above 170 » of the photographs, and the accompanying notes, which were considered to represent « all the important views and edifices within the city ». The grandeur of these important cultural properties is sometimes tarnished by their state of disrepair and lack of upkeep.Kazumasa Ogawa (1860-1929) is considered as a pioneer in the development of photography and photomechanical printing in Japan. In 1882, Ogawa studied portrait photography and the dry plate process in Boston. He also studied collotype printing with the Albert Type Company. On his return to Japan in 1884 he opened a photographic studio in Tokyo. In 1888 he established Tsukiji Kampan Seizo Kaisha (Tsukiji Dry Plate Manufacturing Company) which manufactured dry plates for use by photographers. This business failed after several years in operation. In 1889 he started Japan's first collotype business, the Ogawa Shashin Seihan-jo. Beginning in 1889 he served as the editor of the Shashin Shimpo (East Asia's first and Japan's only photographic journal at the time) and Kokka ("National Essence") magazine and printed both using by collotype printing for the plates. He was a founding member of the Japan Photographic Society, Japan's first amateur photography association.

106. Photo alBum China. [Hankow], 1907-1911. Over 200 original b/w photographs, the majority measuring approx. 9.5 x 12cm. Cloth-covered album (340 x 270 mm)

The album is dated 'China, December 1911' but the ink-written titles to the photographs give a range of dates from 1907-1911. The album provides a record of an expatriate's life and travels in China at the beginning of the 20th century. The photographer would appear to have worked for a trading company in Hankow, part of present-day Wuhan.The album starts with images of Tsingtau (Qingdao) showing German-style residential and civic buildings, the Tsingtau races of 1907, views of a fire at the godowns of a foreign company (A.P. & Co). This is followed by foreigners relaxing and bathing at Kuling in Jiangxi province and the Wuchang lakes plus a series of views of Laushan (Laoshan), the hilly area outside Qingdao. There are then 11 photographs of foreign employees of A.P & Co celebrating Christmas in Hankow in 1908.

A few photographs represent the expatriate resort of Kuling in 1909 and scenes on the Yangtze near Nanjing. Thereafter are 11 views of buildings, the river and boats taken in Hankow, followed by a number of photographs of various people and places including a couple of the Shanghai Races of 1911. The following photographs feature 'Chinese Types', foreigners enjoying a river trip near Shanghai, then a lively series of photographs of races and an expatriate Gymkhana in Hankow in 1910 including ladies in full Edwardian dress and large hats engaged in a race and a photograph of expatriate ladies in rickshaws ready to be pulled by expatriate gentlemen. This is followed by photographs of the Tennis Handicap, Hankow, 1910 and 3 panorama-style photographs of Shanghai including one just down river of Soochow Creek and a view of Soochow Creek itself. The final page of photographs ranges from Loochow Pagoda to Ichang, the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, Chinese Execution and the Tientsin Fire Bell.The album is of considerable merit in that the majority of the photographs are of places and scenes other than the more 'usual' sights of Beijing and Shanghai. It is also pleasing for the photographs of typical expatriate events.

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107. HOLMES (Elias Burton) Travelogues. With illustrations from photographs by the author. Complete in ten volumes – Volume nine. New York, The Mc Clure Company, 1908. 1 vol. in-quarto (260 x 190 mm.): [4], 336 pp. ; color frontispiece and illustrated throughout by black and white and colour photographs by the author. Bound in 3/4 dark blue morocco, cloth covered boards, raised bands with compartments decoratively stamped and lettered in gilt.

First edition of Volume 9 of Holmes' very popular

travel series illustrated with numerous photographs

and illustrations from the author.

In a time before air travel or radio, on the brink of a revolution in photography and filmmaking, Burton Holmes (1870-1958) set upon a lifelong journey to bring the world home. From the grand boulevards of Paris to China’s Great Wall, from the first modern Olympics in Athens to the 1906 eruption of Mount Vesuvius, Holmes delighted in finding « the beautiful way around the world » and made a career of sharing his stories, photographs, and films with audiences across America. He visited every continent and nearly every country on the planet, shooting over 30,000 photographs and nearly 500,000 feet of film.Volume 9 of the series Travelogues is devoted to China and contains descriptions and photographs of the Amur River, Peking and the Forbidden City.

108. PONTUS (raoul) Mission spéciale belge en Chine confiée à M. Raoul Warocqué, envoyé extraordinaire de S.M. le Roi des Belges près S.M. l'Empereur de Chine. Bruxelles, Librairie Falk fils, 1911. 1 vol. in-8°(244 x 160 mm.): 128 pp. ; 2 folding maps, numerous photographs in the text. Sewn original red printed wrapper.

Rare account of a Belgian mission to China to officially announce the succession of King Leopold II of Belgium, upon his death, by King Albert I. The mission was headed by one of Belgium's foremost industrialists, which leads to the assumption that this change of kings was only a pretext for a disguised sales tour to promote Belgian industrial products.

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109. MENNIE (donald) China North and South. A series of Vandyck photogravures illustrating the picturesque aspect of Chinese life and surroundings. Second & revised edition. Photos by Donald Mennie. Shanghai, A.S. Watson & Co, [ca. 1920]. 1 vol. oblong in-quarto (235 x 300 mm.) containing 30 Vandyke photogravures. Wrappers with laces, title and photography to cover ; brown marbled paper chemise ; brown marbled paper slipcase.

Second and revised edition of this Mennie’s Series of Vandyk Photogravures illustrating the picturesque aspect of Chinese life and surrounding. Donald Mennie, British director of a well-established firm of merchants, approached here Chinese landscape with the vision and techniques of the Pictorialist, as he also did in the soft-focus romantic-looking portfolio The Pageant of Peking (see cat. 110).

The photographs represent with peace and grace, the Min River, the Wangpoo and other Chinese waterway, bridges (P’ai Lou and Marble Bridge, Po-Yo Bridge etc.), street life and buildings (Tiendong Temple, Bronze Pavillon, the Heavenly Bamboo Temple, Tien Chu Temple). They were taken during a journey to Soochow, Ningpo, Foochow, Pei Hai, Hangchow, Shanghai, Peking, Naziang, Sungkiang etc.

110. MENNIE (donald) & WEALE (Putnam) The Pageant of Peking comprising sixty-six Vandyck photogravures of Peking and environs from photographs by Donald Mennie with an introduction by Putnam Weale. Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, 1920. 1 vol. in-folio (393 x 300 mm.): [8], 40 pp., 66 tipped-in collotype plates of early 20th-century Beijing and the surrounding countryside. Original silk-covered boards, gilt title and Chinese characters to upper cover ; in the original box.

First and limited edition of 1000 copies (copy nr. 303).The aesthetic photographer Donald Mennie (1899-1941) was active in Shanghai and Peking from 1920 until the late 30s. His soft-toned pictorialist images of the capital and its people show the deep admiration which Mennie felt for the Chinese and their culture.This work includes 66 folio photographs of early 20th century Peking and the surrounding area and includes photos of famous views such as the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and scenes of shopkeepers, merchants, travelers and monks going about their business.

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111. Photo alBum Peking. [ca. 1920]. 1 vol. in-folio (305 x 240 mm.) : 38 + 48 original photographs. Chinese binding, photo-illustrated front cover ; blue cloth covered box.

Very nice photographic album containing only photographs of landscapes, monuments and sacred sites without any presence of human beings. This silence creates a sort of distance that confers to these photos a sacred dimension, sometimes eerie, sometimes grandiose.

112. Photo alBum Peking. [ca. 1920]. Series of 24 original photographs. In silk embroidered bookcase.

Other photographic album depicting several Peking monuments.

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113. TAKUZO (yamanE) & KYOKUTO (taikan) Bird's eye view of the Far East. Tokyo, 1920. 1 vol. oblong in-folio (270 x 370 mm.): with 149 photographic plates (some folding). Green silk-covered boards stitched Japanese-style.

A selection of photographs from the author’s travels in China over a period of ten years from around 1909 onwards. The places illustrated range from the Bund and foreign concessions in Shanghai through various places on the Yangtze (including the gorges), areas of Southern China and up to Manchuria. Nine of the plates are panoramas (some quite spectacular), two being double page and seven foldouts.Text in Japanese.

114. CHITTY (J.R.) Things seen in China with fifty illustrations. London, Seeley, Service & Co, 1922. 1 vol. in-12° (148 x 107 mm.) : [2], i-xi, 12-158, [2] pp. ; with 50 photographic plates. Blue pictorial cloth with gilt spine.

New edition of this beautifully illustrated handbook published here as a part of the “Things seen series” (first edition : London, Seeley, 1909 / New York, E.P. Dutton and company).The Seeley's successful series “Things Seen” was intended for two types of readers, those who travelled abroad and wanted to have information about the lives and ways of the people of the town or country described, which was not found in guide books ; and secondly for those who stayed at home and wished to read a description of foreign countries and towns, and the way of living of their inhabitants.This particular handbook was calculated to direct attention to the prominent points of interest in China.J.R. Chitty describes the social, family, commercial, religious, artistic and literary life of the Chinese, adding grace and style to entire familiarity with the country and people.

Cordier, BS, 3266.

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115. LICENT (émilE) Hoang Ho, Pai Ho, Loan Ho, Leao Ho : Itinéraires suivis dans le bassin du Fleuve Jaune et autres tributaires du Golfe du Pei Tcheuly. Tientsin, Librairie française, 1924. 1 vol. oblong elephant-folio (545 x 800 mm.): 154 plates (maps and photographs) numbered from 1 to 154 and 39 plates not numbered as well as numerous photographs taken during the Expedition, printed on thick coloured paper. Brown cloth covered boards with black title.

Spectacular edition, limited to 400 copies, of this Emile Licent’s geographical work containing photographs and maps.Émile Licent (1876-1952) was a French Jesuit. He arrived at Tianjin in 1914, and established the Musée Hoangho Paiho (it was known as the “Beijiang Museum” among the Chinese), one of the earliest of its kind in China. He spent more than twenty-five years researching in Tianjin and became in charge for a significant laboratory collaborating with the Natural History Museum in Paris and Marcellin Boule's laboratory.

His expeditions with Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881 -1955), who arrived in China in 1923, spread across various parts of Northern and Central China (including the provinces of Shandong, Hebei, Shanxi, Henan, Shaanxi, Gansu, Inner Mongolia and eastern part of the Tibetan Plateau).

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116. SIRÉN (osvald) The walls and gates of Peking. Researches and impressions. London, John Lane, 1924. 1 vol. in-folio (330 x 270 mm.) : xvii, [2], 239 pp. ; 109 photogravures after photographs taken by Osvald Sirén and engraved by Franck C. Thomas, 50 architectural drawings by Chinese artists. Half beige cloth.

First and only limited edition of 800 copies (this copy n° 398).Superb historical description of the substantial stone monuments in the Peking area, probably the most important work and the only photographic monograph on the subject from this period by one of the greatest authorities on Chinese art history and architecture. The work, lavishly illustrated by excellent photos by the author, with useful and in-depth essays on these wonderful monuments, offers details of each monument, giving sizes, construction materials and techniques. Siren's goal was to provide a complete survey of Peking's city wall. He traces some parts of the wall back to the late 15th century while other features were added as late as 1850. In the name of "great wisdom" and communist progress in the 1960's under Mao and the "Cultural Revolution" a great number of the walls & gates were destroyed, thus making this record particularly valuable. The magnificent photogravures also provide a superb record of the surrounding city life, while the main mode of transport to the capital was by camel caravan.

117. SIRÉN (osvald) Les Palais Impériaux de Pékin. 274 planches en heliotypie d'après les photographies de l'auteur, 12 dessins architectureaux et 2 plans. Avec une notice historique sommaire. Paris - Bruxelles, G. Vanoest, 1926. 3 vols. Royal in-quarto (330 x 255 mm.): vi, 69 pp.; with 274 heliotype plates after the photographs by the author, 12 architectural drawings and 2 plans. Half green morocco.

First French edition.The Swedish scholar, Osvald Sirén (1879 - 1966), was well known in the academic world during his lifetime. A professor at the University of Stockholm, as well as a visiting professor at Harvard University, he initially focused on the Early Italian Renaissance. But after World War I, his focus shifted to the area of specialization in which he is still considered as a foremost authority to this day.Sirén's first publications in the study of Chinese Art appeared around the early 1920s and shortly after he travelled to China to directly study and photograph the Chinese cultural and artistic achievements. His most documented of such visits evolved into the three volume photo-album The Imperial Palaces of Peiking, which was published in 1926 in both Britain and France. The original edition includes 274 images, 12 architectural drawings, 2 maps, and a short historical account by Siren himself. Another edition was also published in New York fifty years later.

The photographs in the album - which were taken in the early 1920s, prior to the expulsion of the child emperor, Pu Yi - include images of the Forbidden City and environs, especially the New Summer Palace of the Empress Dowager and the buildings surrounding the three large lakes of the Inner City. Taken in collotype print, the subjects are mainly architectural, both interior and exterior, and a few images, surprisingly, even include an individual sitting by the emperor's brother.

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118. BOERSCHMANN (Ernst) Baukunst und Landschaft in China. Eine Reise durch zwölf Provinzen. Berlin, Ernst Wasmuth, 1926. 1 vol. in-quarto (310 x 248 mm.): XXV pp. introduction in German (index of names and places pictured in the book), title-page, 1 map, 288 full-page photogravures of unique quality in a warm sepia tone. Three quarter red shagreen, gilt spine.

First edition of this outstanding photo book of extraordinary quality showing motives of Chinese architecture, landscape and everyday life. Famous German architect and also prolific photographer, Ernest Boerschmann (1873-1949), undertook research on Chinese old architectures in twelve provinces in China (Chihili, Shantung, Shansi, Shensi, Szechuan, Hupei, Hunan, Kuangsi, Kuantung, Fukien, Kiangsu, Chekiang). This book is full of rare

photographs of old buildings in various regions in China taken on his three-year trip to Asia between 1906 and 1909, supplemented by 31 photos from Chinese photographers. The photogravures are commented in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.The exceptionally fine screen gravures were printed by the German firm Rotophot.

119. MENNIE (donald) The grandeur of the gorges, fifty photographic studies, with descriptive notes, of China's great waterway, the Yangtze Kiang, including twelve hand-coloured prints. Shanghai, Watson & Company, Kelly & Walsh, 1926. 1 vol. in-quarto (320 x 260 mm.): 50 tipped-in photographic plates (38 photogravures, 12 hand-coloured salt-prints). Original decorated silk binding : two variants exist of the binding, the present one being in embroidered blue silk showing a scene on the Yangtze (the other one being in black silk with a gold spine).

First limited edition (one of 1000 numbered copies) of this spectacular photographic record of the Upper-Yangtze taken during two excursions in the low-level season, one on a steamer from Ichang to Chungking, the other by native boat trough the districts between Ichang and Wan Hsein. Each plate faces a short descriptive note written by Lieut. Comdr. H. Foote Carey, who accompanied Mennie on the second trip. Mennie’s purpose was to « try and depict the mighty river in some of its ever-changing moods to reveal something of its mysterious fascination and to convey some slight impression of the tremendous scale and magnitude of its scenery » (Introduction).

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120. MUSSO (GiusEPPE domEnico) La Cina ed i Cinesi. Loro leggi e costumi. Milano, U. Hoepli, 1926. 2 vols. (240 x 172 mm.): xliv, 642 pp. ; lxiv, 1494 pp. ; with 304 photographs, 4 geographical tables, several diagrams, about 1500 illustrative notes. Contemporary green morocco, central gilt arms of Prince of Piemont, the son of King Victor-Emmanuel III, the future Umberto III king of Italy (1844-1900), gilt spine, edges gilt.

First edition of this very rare Italian encyclopaedia on China.

121. WHITE (hErBErt clarEncE) Peking the beautiful, comprising seventy photographic studies of the celebrated monuments of China's Northern capital and its environs complete with descriptive and historical notes. Shanghai, Commercial Press, 1927. 1 vol. in-folio (400 x 320 mm.): [2], 155 pp., list of photographic images, [12] pp. text, with 70 mounted photographic plates (12 coloured), and text illustrations. Original blue silk, upper cover woven with title and central image of temple, a floral border pattern in the cloth, in an original pictorial box.

First edition of this superb work with photographic studies : a fine example of Shanghai typography. This work was done by one of the White brothers who was Art Director at the "Signs of the Times Publishing House" in Shanghai. The White brothers, industrious authors and publishers, were missionaries in China. This work is quite a production, printed with fine sepia tone photos of the most beautiful scenic spots in and around the capital.

Each photographic image is accompanied by the Chinese character name in the margin, and preceded by a descriptive page, decorated by a first letter with an illustrative background and a small sketch image in the lower left corner. The photographic images show several Chinese architectural buildings : gateways, pagodas, shrines, walls, bridges and palaces, but also Lamaistic arts, altars, gardens, dragon throne, Confucian Pailou, sleeping Buddha, bronze and marble sculptures etc.

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122. GREEN (O.M.) Shanghai of today. A souvenir album of fifty Vandyck prints of “the model settlement” […]. Shanghai, Kelly & Walsh, 1928. 1 vol. in-quarto (310 x 257 mm.): 15 pp. (introduction by O.M. Green), 50 photographs. Contemporary paper covered boards with a photograph, title lettered in orange.

Second edition enlarged of this illustrated work on Shanghai. The first edition was published in 1927. Shanghai, being a Treaty Port, was composed of two parts : the native or Shanghai city, under the control and administration of the Chinese and the foreign concessions, part of the city under the control and administration of foreigners. The Shanghai Municipal Council was the governing body which administered the combined British and American foreign concessions in Shanghai, known as the Shanghai International Settlement (also called the Model Settlement). It was established in 1854 to reorganise the existing concessions. It consisted of about 4 000 foreign residents of all nationalities, the majority of whom were, however, English. Chinese citizens were not permitted to join the council until 1928.This work fully illustrated with photographs covers all the most important places of the Shanghai International Settlement. It shows Western-style buildings, in particular administrative or commercial buildings and some religious buildings. The fifty photographs present Shanghai as a modern and attractive city.Entitled “souvenir-album”, this work offers however a partial vision of the city. « When foreigners speak of Shanghai, the great commercial metropolis of China,

they usually mean only the foreign settlement near the native city » (Foreigners in Shanghai, Social Life in the Modern Settlement, in The New York Times, December 19, 1886).The photographs are preceded by an introduction by O.M. Green, who was British editor of the North China Daily News.

123. HUBRECHT (alPhonsE) Grandeur et suprématie de Péking […]. Péking, Imprimerie des Lazaristes, 1928. 1 vol. in-folio (325 x 255mm.) : [24], 607, [4] pp. ; 560 wood-engravings, 140 half-tone engravings, 10 wood-engravings out of text, 30 dropped initials, 220 zincographic plates after original photographs, numerous facsimiles of Chinese texts. Original pictorial wrappers, in a sturdy cardboard box with cloth outside and marbled paper inside.

First and limited edition of 1000 numbered copies of this rare and deluxe story of Peking at the Contemporary Period (this is copy numbered 275).This work benefited from the erudition of Christian missionaries’, who lived in China and were for a long time a durable and strong link between the West and the Far East. Well-illustrated, it is divided in two parts, one historical and one descriptive. The historical part begins with the Mongol Empire (13th-14th Century) and ends at the first decades of the Republic of China (established in 1912). The descriptive part describes the palaces, temples, Imperials Tombs, and also the family life in China, the social life and explains the beliefs. Some wood-engravings were before in Favier’s Peking, histoire et description (Peking, 1897).

183

124. MAYBON (charlEs) & FREDET (JEan) Histoire de la concession française de Changai. Paris, Plon, 1929. 1 vol. in-folio (292 x 215 mm.): [10], vii, 458, [6], with 24 plates and maps from early drawings, paintings or photos, 4 double-page maps and 1 folding panorama with 2 city views of Shanghai. Recent half black shagreen over red marbled boards, gilt spine.

First edition, limited to 125 copies, of this work composed by Jean Fredet (1879-1948) and professor Charles Maybon (1872-1926) relating the history of the French Concession at Shanghai. In 1849, the French Consul to Shanghai, Charles de Montigny, obtained a proclamation from the Governor of Shanghai, which conceded certain territory for a French settlement. Its borders were expanded twice, in 1900 and 1914. During the 1920s, the French Concession was developed into the premier residential area of Shanghai, covering what are today Xuhui District and Luwan District and occupying the centre, south, and west of urban Shanghai.This work recounts the history of Shanghai from the commercial treaty between France and China - the Treaty of Whampoa (1844) - to the first French mission and the beginning of the French concession in 1849, through the Taiping Rebellion (from 1850 to 1864), the Tientsin massacres (1870) and the war of 1870-71. Richly illustrated, this work includes a list of French consuls to Shanghai between 1848 to 1875 and a bibliography.

125. WHITE (hErBErt clarEncE & JamEs hEnry) Romantic China. An album containing thirty-two photographic studies of China’s historic monuments and charming beauty spots. Complete with descriptive and historical notes. Shangai, Browhite Arts, 1930. 1 vol. in-quarto (270 x 225 mm.): unpaginated ; foreword by Herbert Clarence White (4 pp.), postcript by J.Henry White (2 pp.) ; 42 photographic plates with English and Chinese titles. Maroon embossed cloth. Provenance : copy signed by the authors, the brothers Herbert Clarence and James Henry White.

Rare edition of this album containing thirty-two photographic studies of China's historic monuments and charming beauty spots, with descriptive and historical notes.The White brothers went to China in 1922 as missionaries. They became deeply interested in China, and as skilled photographers spent much time documenting it. As explained in their foreword and postscript, their missionary zeal focused on helping young Chinese with artistic talents to be self-supporting by coloring and copying their photos. The brothers established Browhite Arts in Shanghai to market their work.

185

126. HEDIN (svEn) Jehol, city of emperors […] translated from the Swedish by E.G. Nash. New York, E.P. Dutton & Company, 1933. 1 vol. in-8° (224 x 150 mm.): [4], xiv, 278, [4] pp. ; 62 half-tone photographs by Gösta Montell, 3 line drawings and 1 map. Full orange sheep with red title label.

Fourth edition (first Stockholm, 1931).Sven Anders Hedin (1865-1952) was a famous pioneer explorer and geographer of Central Asia and Western China at the end of the nineteenth and into the thirties of the twentieth century. Just north of the Great Wall of China lies the city of Jehol (or Cheng-te), which was once the magnificent summer capital of the Manchu Emperors. The name Jehol, literally hot or warm streams, is in reference to local hot springs. In the eighteenth century, Jehol was at its zenith of power and influence. During this period the Emperor Ch' ien Lung (1736-96) built many magnificent monuments, including the Potala, built in the style of the Potala in Lhasa, and the Hsin Kung temple monastery.Hedin went to Jehol (now Chengde in the Hebei province, 250 km North East of Beijing), the summer residence of the great Manchu Emperors up to 1820, to study Lama temples. In this book he tells the dramatic story of his colorful and stirring travels to the city. Dr. Gösta Montell, Swedish ethnographier, researched Inner Mongolia with Dr. Sven Hedin.

127. CATLEEN (EllEn) Peking studies. Shangai, Kelly & Walsh, 1934. 1 vol. in-folio (380 x 274 mm.): unpaginated, [88] pp. with text, sketch illustrations by F.H. Schiff, and illustrations from photographs taken with a Rolleiflex camera. Publisher's beige cloth with a photograph on front cover.

First and only edition of this charming work with a great mixture of excellent photographs and amusing sketches. Ellen Catleen (1902-1973) - her maiden name was Ellen Thorbecke - was married to the Dutch ambassador to China, Willem Thorbecke (1908-1968). She was born in Berlin and came in 1930 to China where she worked as correspondent for various Berlin newspapers.

187

128. LICENT (ÉmilE) Hoang Ho, Pai Ho. Itinéraires suivis dans le bassin du golf du Pei Tcheuly (1923-1933). [Tientsin], Mission de Sienhsien, n.d. [1935]. 1 vol. in-folio (540 x 420 mm.): 35 photographic plates (some are numbered “bis”). Brown cloth covered boards with black title ; laces.

Monumental edition of an extremely rare Licent’s work giving unique documentation of the region.The Jesuit Émile Licent performed a considerable amount of fundamental research with the help of the missionaries who collected scientific data during their free time.

Each page is a combination of a map and pictures taken during his trip. The maps are originally drawn by hand and are then printed on one sheet together with the pictures. The maps are very detailed and a number refers to the position where that picture was taken. The angle of which the photo was made is also indicated.This atlas covers the years 1923-1933 and is the continuation of the precedent work (see cat.116).

129. MELLIN (G.M.) China. Hupeh-Szechwan. No place, 1936. 1 vol. in-folio (350 x 340 mm.): photo-album containing 52 photographs. Contemporary green cloth binding with gilt lettering on front cover.

This photo-album contains a series of atmospheric photographs of the Upper Yangtze (Southern China) with spectacular views of Ichang Gorge, the Ox Liver and Horse Lungs Gorge, the Rice Granary Gorge, the Lushan Gorge, through the Windbox Gorge to Wanhsien, a commercial port opened to foreign trade in 1947, and to Chungking.

The Yangtze River is the longest river in China and Asia, and the third-longest in the world (after the Nile and the Amazon). As the largest river in the region, the Yantgtze is historically, culturally, and economically important to China.The mountain landscapes in the Upper Yangtze river basin are internationally recognised for their biodiversity values and, at a national level, have also been identified as some of the highest priority areas for biodiversity conservation in China.

189

130. CLAUDEL (Paul) & HOPPENOT (hélènE) Chine. Geneva, Albert Skira, 1946. 1 vol. in-folio (360 x 264 mm.): 1 frontispiece, [16] pp. (text in French) and 80 full-page photogravure plates (listed). French folded wrappers over stiff boards, in half red leather jacket with gilt lettered title.

First edition of this photograph's album. The text was written by the French writer and diplomat Paul Claudel (1868-1955) and the photographs taken by Hélène Hoppenot (1896-1990), who was in fact the

wife of Henri Hoppenot (1891–1977), one of France’s most

illustrious diplomats at that time.

These beautiful reproductions give us a glimpse of Chinese

life in the Forties : flowers and plants, street life, birds, bridges,

merchants, puppets are depicted. However, this work offers a

serene vision of a traditional China, transcending the reality

of this time of troubles and violence (rise of nationalism

between 1927 and 1937, Japanese invasions in 1932-33 and

1937, and political repression).

BIBLIoGrAPHY

Abbey Travel in aquatint and lithography 1770-1860 (London, 1957)

Adams Catalogue of books printed on the Continent of Europe, 1501-1600 (Cambridge, 1967)

Alden & Landis European Americana (New York, 1980)

Atkinson La littérature géographique française de la Renaissance (New York, 1957)

Barbier Dictionnaire des ouvrages anonymes. Édition revue et augmentée (Paris, 1872-1889)

Boothroyd & Détrie Le voyage en Chine (Paris, 1992)

Borba de Moraes Bibliographia Brasiliana (Los Angeles, 1983)

Boucher de la Richarderie Bibliothèque universelle des voyages (Geneva, 1970)

Brunet Manuel du libraire et de l’amateur de livres (Paris, s.d.)

Carrington, Goodrich, Cameron Portraits de Chine 1860 -1912 (New York, 1999)

Chadenat Bibliothèque de feu M. Ch. Chadenat (Paris, 1980)

KMKG - MRAH China tussen Hemel en Aarde : 5000 jaar uitvindingen en ontdekkingen (Brussels, 1988)

Cordier Bibliotheca Sinica (Paris, 1904-1924)

De Backer & Sommervogel Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus (Brussels - Paris,1890-1932)

Falconer & Zhao Daying Western Eyes. Historical photographs of China in British collections, 1860-1930 (London, 2008)

Frizot Nouvelle histoire de la photographie (Paris, 1994)

Gay Bibliographie des ouvrages relatifs à l’Afrique et à l’Arabie (Amsterdam, 1961)

Gelber The Dragon and the Foreign Devils (London, 2007)

Howes U.S.Iana 1650-1950 (New York, 1962)

Howgego Encyclopedia of exploration to 1800 (Potts Point, 2003)

Howgego Encyclopedia of exploration 1800 to 1850 (Potts Point, 2004)

Lach Asia in the making of Europe. The Century of discovery (Chicago & London, 1965)

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Needham Science and civilization in China (Cambrigde, 1959)

Reinaud Relations politiques et commerciales de l'Empire Romain avec l'Asie Orientale (Paris, 1863)

Ronan The Shorter science and civilization (Cambridge, 1978)

Sabin A dictionary of books relating to America (New York, 1868-1936)

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Thirez Western photographers of the Qianlong Emperor's European Palaces (New York, 1998)

IndEX

Alexander (William) 51Allom (Thomas) 66Amiot (Jean) 44Ammianus Marcellinus 23Anville (Jean-Baptiste d’) 40Avril (Philippe) 29Barrow (John) 50, 53Bazin de Malpière (D.) 63Beaumont (François-Marie Marchant de) 60Beauvoir (Ludovic de) 76Bell d'antermony (John) 43Bergeron (Pierre) 38Bernard (William Dallas) 68Blaeu (Joan) 16Boerschmann (Ernst) 119Botero (Giovanni) 12Bourguignon d'anville (Jean-Baptiste) 40Bouvet (Joachim) 31Boy-Ed 105Braam Houckgeest (Andreas Van) 48Brand (Adam) 33Breton de La Martinière (Jean Baptiste) 56Cartwright (H. A.) 84Carvalho (Valentim) 13Catleen (Ellen) 127Chambers (William) 41Chambre de Commerce de Lyon 96Chitty (J.R.) 114Cibot (Pierre-Martial) 44Claudel (Paul) 130Congregation of Scheutveld 75Couplet (Philippe) 26Cunynghame (Arthur) 67Dapper (Olfert) 21De L’isle (Joseph) 42Dionysius Periegetes 1Du Halde (Jean-Baptiste) 39Duckerts (Jules) 82Ellis (Henri) 59Escayrac de Lauture (Stanislas d’) 77Favier (Alphonse) 95Fleming (George) 72Fortavion (G.C. de) 71Fortune (Robert) 69Fredet (Jean) 124Gemelli-Careri (Giovanni Francesco) 37Ghirardini (Giovanni Battista) 34Gonzales de Mendoza (Juan) 9, 10Green [O.M.] 122Greslon (Adrien) 22Grosier (Jean-Baptiste) 61Grynaeus (Simon) 4Guignes (Chrétien de) 55Halde (Jean-Baptiste Du) 39Hall (William) 68Hedin (Sven) 126Helman (Isidore) 46Hesse-Wartegg (Ernst von) 99Holmes (Elias Burton) 107Holmes (Samuel) 52Hoppenot (Hélène) 130Hübner (Joseph von) 78Hubrecht (Alphonse) 123Huttich (Johann) 4Incarville (Pierre Nicolas Le Chéron d’) 57Itier (Jules) 88

Jowett (Hardy) 87Kelly & Walsh 93Kircher (Athanasius) 20Koberstein (F.) 104Kyokuto (Taikan) 113La Martinière (Jean-Baptiste Breton de) 56Le Gobien (Charles) 32Le Comte (Louis) 30Licent (Émile) 115, 128L’isle (Joseph de) 42Maffei (Giovanni-Pietro) 11Magalhães (Gabriel de) 27Malpière (D. Bazin de) 63Marchant de Beaumont (François-Marie) 60Marco Polo 6, 7Martini (Martino) 15, 16Mason (George-Henri) 49Maybon (Charles) 124Mela (Pomponius) 2Mellin (G.M.) 129Melotte de Lavaux (Adrien de) 85Mennie (Donald) 109, 110, 119Mendoza (Juan Gonzales de) 9, 10Mumm von Schwarzenstein (Alfons von) 101Musso (Giuseppe Domenico) 120Nachbaur (Albert) 86Navarette (Domingo Fernandez) 35Nieuhoff (Johan) 17Ogawa (Kazumasa) 83, 105Ôhara (Tôya Minsei) 54OKa (Yûgaku) 54Okada (Gyokuzan) 54Okuyama (Tsunegoro) 105Oliphant (Laurence) 70Orleans (Pierre Joseph d') 28Oukhtomski (Esper Esperovitch) 81Piassetsky (Pavel Iakovlevich) 80Piccolomini (Enea Sylvio) 5Pingré (Alexandre) 42Pius II 5Plinius Secundus (Gaius) 3Pontus (Raoul) 108Ramusio (Giovanni Battista) 8Renaudot (Eusèbe) 36Rennie (David) 73Rhodes (Alexandre de) 18Ricci (Matteo) 14Rochechouart (Julien de) 79Rougemont (François de) 24Semedo (Alvarez) 19Shoberl (Frederic) 62Simon 58Sirén (Osvald) 116, 117Sonnerat (Pierre) 45Staunton (George Leonard) 47Takuzo (Yamane) 113Thomson (John) 91Timkovski (Egor Fedorovitch) 64Trigault (Nicolas) 14Verbiest (Ferdinand) 25Weale (Putnam) 110White (Herbert Clarence) 121, 125White (James Henry) 125Williamson (Alexander) 74Wright (Arnold) 84Wright (George) 66Yamamoto (S.) 99