Bookvica - China in Print 2018

CHINA IN PRINT: Hong Kong Rare Book, Photograph & Map Fair 2018 30 November - 2 December

Hong Kong Maritime Museum

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FOREWORD

Dear friends and colleagues,

We would like to present our catalogue for the Hong Kong Book Fair 2018 with 28 rare items. Our main focus is books on China in Russian, Japanese and even Armenian. Among Russian items the most fascinating are travel books, for example, notes on travel along the Nenjiang River Route from Tsurukhaitu to Beijing in 1736 (#1), first Russian book about Tibet (#5), travel across China in 1874-75 by Pyasetsky (#6), Russian circumnavigation account with illustrations of Singapore and its Chinese and East-Indian inhabitants (#8). Two items from the first section were printed by Russian emigrants in Shanghai which is an another interesting side of Russian-Chinese relations.

The section is ended with two items in Japanese - #16 is a novelistic account on the First Opium War and #17 is a collection of views of the Far East and South-East Asia, including Japan, China, Vietnam, and Singapore.

The second section of the catalogue dedicated to two beautiful manuscripts - a journal recording a travel from Beijing to Hankou from 1903 (#18) and album with photographs, plans and drawings illustrating the Third Battle of the Taku Forts during the Second Opium War in JulyAugust 1860 compiled by and portraying British military officers (#19).

We selected rare and attractive items for Photoalbums and Maps sections all with reference to China. The most interesting map is a custom-made wall map of China, Central Asia and Russian Far East printed in 1890s in Russia (#25).

The last book on North Korean Army is a rare propaganda album full of photographs of North Korea in 1960s (#28).

Bookvica team Historical research by Alisa Washke, PhD 2018 www.bookvica.com books@bookvica.com

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BOOKS IN RUSSIAN, JAPANESE & ARMENIAN 01

[FIRST RUSSIAN PLAN OF BEIJING]

[Lange, Lorenz] Dnevnye Zapiski Karavannomu Puti cherez Naunskuyu Dorogu ot Tsurukhaitu do Pekina, 1736 godu / [i.e. Daily Notes on the Caravan Travel along the Nenjiang River Route from Tsurukhaitu to Beijing in 1736]. In: Akademicheskiye Izvestiya na 1781 god, Soderzhashchiye v Sebe Istoriyu Nauk i Noveyshiye Otkrytiya Onykh… [i.e. Academic Newsletter for 1781, Containing the History of Sciences and the Latest Discoveries in Them…]. St. Petersburg: Imperial Academy of Sciences, 1781. Parts 7 & 8 bound together. 942 pp. 20,5x12 cm. With one folding copper engraved plan and three folding copper engraved plates, bound without one copper engraved plate (a blueprint of a handmill).

Contemporary Russian full leather with green title label on the spine, and blind stamped volume number “7-8”. Copper engraved 19th-century library paper label on the front pastedown endpaper. Binding rubbed on extremities, corners slightly bumped, paper very mildly age toned, pp. 17-18 with a loss of the lower blank margin neatly repaired with old paper, a few words slightly affected, but overall a very good copy of this rare Russian periodical in very original condition.

First and only edition. First publication of an important Russian early 18th-century account of a caravan travel to China along the unusual route via Eastern Siberia and Manchuria. The manuscript describes the travel of a Russian diplomatic and the trade caravan to Beijing in July 1736 – May 1737, under command of Siberian merchant Yerofey Firsov and an important Russian diplomat of Swedish origin Lorenz Lange (ca.

1690s-1752). The caravan didn’t have the traditional stopover in the tea-trading town of Kyakhta, but proceeded further east and crossed the Russian-Chinese border near Tsurukhaitu (now Priargunsk, Zabaykalsky Kray); later moving over the Greater Khingan Range and along the route of the Nen River, and stopping in Naun (Nenjiang, Heilongjiang province).

The diary includes a detailed description of Naun and the Great Wall of China; a separate part of the narration is titled “What happened on our

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arrival to Beijing.” The publication is supplemented with a folding copper engraved plan of Beijing – the first such plan in a Russian book.

The plan shows Beijing within the 18th-century city border, with the Forbidden City in the centre, as well as its vicinity with the nearby wells, rivers and monasteries; in the north the plan marks the first Russian cemetery outside the city wall. The plan is supplemented with a list of 30 objects also shown by the compiler, including the Emperor’s Palace, several city gates, the Jingshan Hill, French and Portuguese embassies, “the house where elephants are lodged,” Russian Embassy and church, the Temple of Heaven, and others. The annotations to the plan were compiled by a noted Russian sinologist Ilarion Rassokhin (1707/17171761).

The original manuscript was found in the famous “Mueller’s Portfolios” (i.e. Portfeli Millera) – an enormous collection of original and copied documents from Siberian archives collected by the famous Russian historian, traveller and pioneer ethnologist Gerhard Mueller during the Great Northern Expedition (1733-43); the documents bound in 34 gigantic volumes comprise of the largest in the world archival collection on Siberian geography, ethnography, and history of Russian exploration. The “Mueller’s Portfolios” are now stored in Moscow in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Documents (RGADA).

The original Russian text of the “Daily Notes on the Caravan Travel” was published in parts VII and VIII of the “Academical Newsletter” (pp. 466-505, 602-631); the German text was published the same year in P.S. Pallas’s famous “Neue Nordische Beitraege” (Bd. 2, St.-Pbg. and Leipzig, 1781, pp. 160-207).

A prisoner of war after Sweden’s defeat in the Great Northern War (1720-21), Lorenz Lange “was a military engineer in German service.

He entered Russian service in 1712, and accompanied the British surgeon Thomas Garvine on an expedition to China. In all he appears to have made six journeys to China. He remained in Siberia and in 1739 was appointed vice-governor of Irkutsk. He wrote six diaries: one of them covering the years 1720-22, was published in French and German in 1726” (Howgego, To 1800, S198).

Overall an important first publication of a Russian travel to China, with the first plan of Beijing published in a Russian book.

8,500USD / 66,500HKD

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Binding. No 01

Title page. No 01

Plan. No 01

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[AMUR RIVER: NEW RUSSIAN TERRITORIES]

Maksimov, S.V. Na Vostoke: Poezdka na Amur (v 1860-1861 godakh).

Dorozhnye Zametki i Vospominaniia [i.e. On the East: A Travel to Amur in 1860-1861. Notes and Memoirs]. St. Petersburg: Obschestvennaya Polza, 1864. [4], 588 pp. Octavo. Contemporary gilt tooled quarter leather with blind stamped brown cloth boards. Head and tail of spine with minor chips, first few pages with some mild water staining of upper outer corner of blank margin of pages, mild foxing throughout and a couple of mild stains in text, but overall a very good copy.

This is the first edition of the travel notes by a prominent Russian ethnographer made during his journey to the newly annexed Russian Amur Province – the area of over 600,000 sq. km between the Stanovoy Mountains and the left bank of the Amur River - former Chinese Outer Manchuria - had been handed over to Russia by the Quing Empire government just two years prior to Maksimov’s trip, as a result of the Treaties of Aigun (1858) and Peking (1860), both of which were qualified as “unequal treaties” by China in the 20th century. Weakened by the unsuccessful Second Opium War, Chinese Empire agreed to the loss of a large part of its Outer Manchuria in order to avoid the war with Russia whose military and naval presence in the Far East had been steadily growing since the 1850s.

Title page. No 02

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Maksimov’s route went through Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Tomsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, and Nerchinsk; from there down the Shilka River to its confluence with the Ergune River where the Amur River proper starts. The chapter about his travel along the Amur River describes the legs from Ust-Strelka to Blagoveshchensk, then to Khabarovsk, and to Nikolaevsk located near the Amur liman in the Pacific Ocean.

Separate parts are dedicated to the Russian colonization of the Amur River valley, and to the life of Nikolaevsk and Russian settlers in the mouth of the Amur. The other chapter titled ‘On the Eastern Ocean’ describe Maksimov’s voyage on a steamer through the Strait of Tartary, with stops in De Castries Bay (now Chikhachyov Bay), the Emperor’s Harbour (now Sovetskaya Harbour), St. Olga’s Bay, and recently founded Russian settlement in the Posyet Bay. The next chapters describe his subsequent travel through Japan (Hakodate), Manchuria (with an interesting description of the city of Aigun), and China (Maimaicheng – now Altanbulag). There are also descriptions of the Russian fair in Blagoveshchensk and famous tea trade in Kyakhta.

Overall a very interesting first hand account of the early years of Russian colonization of the Amur River, and bordering territories of Japan, Manchuria and China.

Sergei Maksimov (1831-1901) was a Russian ethnographer and traveller, an honorary member of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

He took part in the 1855 expedition to the Russian Arctic, organised by the Naval Ministry, and wrote his major book A Year in the North (1859) based on his impressions during the voyage. In 1860-61 Maksimov participated in the next expedition organised by the Naval Ministry to study the inhabitants of the just annexed Amur territories.

Maksimov’s most famous works were related to his travels to the Siberian katorga. His book Exiles and Prisons was published in 1862 for state officials only, with a print run of only 500 copies, and with a stamp ‘Confidential’. Only several years later a public edition appeared, becoming extremely popular. Maksimov’s books strikingly describe the manners and customs of Russians, including beggars, old believers, cossacks, inhabitants of the Caspian shore, Urals, and Amur; they are still highly popular and are reissued by modern publishers.

Only seven copies found in Worldcat.

1,500USD / 11,700HKD

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03

[CHINA]

Korostovets, I.Y. [Presentation Copy]: Kitaitsy i Ikh Tsivilizatsiya. S Prilozheniyem Karty Kitaya, Yaponii i Korei [i.e. Chinese and Their Civilization. With a Map of China, Japan & Korea]. St. Petersburg: Bookshop of M.M. Lederle, [1896]. iv, viii, 625, [2], iii pp. Octavo. With a folding lithographed map at rear. Brown ink author’s presentation inscription in Russian on the title page: “To deeply respected Konstantin Karlovich Goeltzke from the author. I. Korostovets. Lissabon, 4/16 November 96.”

Period style half leather with marbled papered boards. Paper slightly age toned, otherwise a very good copy.

Rare first edition of a comprehensive work on China written by a noted Russian diplomat and sinologist Ivan Korostovets (1862-1933), who served in the Russian embassy in Beijing in 1890-94, then in the newly formed administration of the Kwantung Russian-leased territory and Port Arthur (1899), later took part in preparation and signing of the Portsmouth Peace Treaty which finished the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, and was the Russian plenipotentiary (1908) and ambassador in China in 1909-1911. In 1912 Korostovets, as the head of the Russian mission in Mongolia, signed the treaty which made Russia the first country in the world to acknowledge the independence of the Outer Mongolia from China, and thus played a major role in the formation of modern Mongolia as an independent state.

Binding. No 03

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Map. No 03

“Chinese and their civilization” was the first book by Korostovets, written after his almost five-year service in the Russian embassy in Beijing. His main goal was to educate the Russian public in the main topics of contemporary life and development of the Chinese Empire. In the light of Russian Imperial advances in Manchuria and after the creation of the Kwantung leased territory in southern Liaodong Peninsula in 1898, the book turned out to be so popular that the second edition was published the same year, in 1898.

The book consists of 28 chapters, namely: Chinese and Europeans – Chinese [national] character; Trade relations and wars between China and Europeans; Population migrations; State administration and government; [Christian] missionaries and anti-European propaganda; Structure of the judicial system; Education and state exams; Extractive industry and manufacture; Finance and state budget; Trade and money; Chinese family: children and parents, marriage, funeral rituals and the cult of ancestors; How Chinese live: dwellings, street trade and crafts; Agriculture and tea cultivation; Science; Architecture and arts; Russian

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Orthodox Mission in Beijing; Theatre and music; Europeans’ life in Beijing; The state religion; Confucius and his teachings; Laozi and Taoism; Buddhism and Lamaism; Calendar and Holidays; European Embassies in China; Sino-Japanese War of 1894-94; etc.

The well-preserved lithographed map outlines the state and regional borders of the Chinese Empire, with the Liaodong Peninsula shown as a Chinese territory. The map indicates the major railways and telegraph lines, showing a proposed railway from Newchwang (modern-day Yingkou) and Jinzhou to Jilin via Shenyang – a predecessor of the Chinese Eastern Railway which was constructed by the Russian government in 1897-1903. The map also indicates the cities in China, Korea and Japan, open for international trade, as well as the cities where Russian consulates had been established.

The book was presented by the author – shortly after it had come out of the printing press – to Konstantin Goeltzke, the head of Russian consulate in Florence in 1899 and the representative of the Imperial Orthodox Palestine Society in Bari. Overall a very nice presentation copy of this important book on China, with a close connection to the Russian diplomatic circles of the late 19th century.

3,250USD / 25,400HKD

04

[CHINA - MANCHURIA]

Tsererin, A.P. Rezultaty Poezdki po Hulan-Chenskomu Futudunstvu [i.e.

Results of a Travel to the Province of Hulan-Chen]. Vladivostok: Typ. of Sushchinsky & Co., 1902. [2], 46 pp. Octavo. With a folding lithographed plate and a folding lithographed map at rear. Original publisher’s wrappers. Very good. Wrappers with very minor chipping on extremities.

First and only edition. Very rare. The account of a travel to Harbin across the modern Heilongjiang province of China, written by Andrey Tsererin, a student of the newly founded Vladivostok Eastern Institute (modern-day Far-Eastern Federal University). The brochure describes history, geography and modern state of the province, with a special chapter on the Boxer rebellion and the Honghuzi (armed Chinese bandits), population, Russian settlers, spread of Christianity, agriculture, opium production and consumption; there is a detailed description of making hanshin or baijiu (traditional Chinese strong

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alcoholic beverage). The account was published as an offprint from the Izvestiya Vostochnogo Instituta (vol. III, part III), supplemented with a lithographed map marking main towns, rivers, roads and mountains of the region between the Songhua and Hulan Rivers. The lithographed plate shows a draught of the apparatus used for making baijiu alcoholic beverage.

Overall a very interesting rare imprint about Chinese Manchuria during the Boxer Rebellion.

Only two paper copies found in Worldcat (British Library, National Library of France).

850USD / 6,600HKD

Cover and plans. No 04

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05

[FIRST VIEW OF LHASA]

[Iakinf/ Bichurin, N.Y.] Opisanie Tibeta v Nyneshnem Yego Sostoyanii. S Kartoyu Dorogi iz Chen-du do Khlassy. Perevod s Kitaiskago [i.e. Description of Tibet in its Modern State. With a Map of the Road from Chen-du to Lhassa. Translated from Chinese]. St. Petersburg: Typ. of the Imperial Foundling Home, 1828. xvi, 223, [2] pp. Octavo. With a large folding engraved map of Tibet and a hand coloured folding copper engraved view of Lhasa. Later quarter sheep with marbled papered boards; spine with gilt stamped ornaments and a green label with gilt lettered title.

Both original publisher’s wrappers bound in, first wrapper with a period ink inscription in Russian on verso: “Received on the 11th of September 1829 from the bookshop of the Department of Public Education” (in translation). Pale 19th-century library stamps on verso of the map, title page, dedication leaf and in text, page 159/160 neatly remargined, otherwise a very good copy.

First edition. Very rare. Only eight paper copies found in WorldCat.

First Russian book about Tibet and first printed book by the famous Russian historian and translator from Chinese archimandrite Iakinf, “the father of Russian sinology” (his ‘‘Notes on Mongolia’’ were published later the same year). Complete, with a large folding map of a caravan route from Chengdu (Sichuan province of China) to Lhasa (the main route to Tibet), and a picturesque hand colored bird’s-eye view of Lhasa, “the first detailed view of the city to appear in a Western printed book” (Sotheby’s).

“A very rare and valuable account of Tibet from a Chinese perspective. The first and only edition in Russian and the first printing of this work in the West, translated by the Russian monk and Sinologist Iakinf Bichurin from the Chinese original of 1792. With a very fine hand-coloured bird’s-eye view of Lhasa, the first detailed view of the city to appear in a Western printed book; the plan and key are present in only a very small number of copies. This book, edited by Lu Hua Chu, was written by the Chinese civil servant Ma Shao Yun, aided by Shung Mai-hai and was intended as an official government handbook for the Chinese army then occupying Tibet and to give information to the authorities in China about Tibet. The book is divided into two parts: the first is a topographical description of the route from Chen-du in Szechuan province to Lhasa; the second contains information on vari-

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ous aspects of Tibet, including its history, frontiers, the calendar, army, law, finances, dress, food, manners and customs, buildings, medicine, divination, and details of the Chinese administration. The translator, Iakinf Bichurin, spent 14 years as leader of the Russian Orthodox Mission to China in the early nineteenth century. His scholarly studies of China and Chinese culture brought him distinction as one of the founding fathers of Chinese studies and one of the first Russian Sinologists; he was also a corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences” (Sotheby’s).

The main text is supplemented with two “articles” specially written by father Iakinf: a sketch of Tibet’s geography, history, population, education and administration; and an essay about the history and modern state of religion in Tibet. The book was dedicated to princess Zinaida Volkonskaya (1789-1862), Russian soloist, poet and writer and an important figure in 19th-century Russian cultural life, who financially supported the publication of the book. In 1831 “Opisanie Tibeta” was translated into French by Julius von Klaproth who made Iakinf widely known in the European scientific circles (Description du Tibet, traduite partiellement du chinois en russe par le P. Hyacinthe Bitchourin, et du russe en français par M. ***; soigneusement revue et corrigée sur l’original chinois, complétée et accompagnée de notes par M. Klaproth. Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1831). Shortly after the book had been published, Russian Academy of Sciences made father Iakinf its member (1828); in 1831 he also joined the Asiatic Society of Paris.

Not in Yakushi (3rd edition).

15,000USD / 117,500 HKD

No 05

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Plan. No 05

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[INNER CHINA]

[Pyasetsky/Piasetskii], P.Y. Puteshestvie po Kitayu v 1874-1875 gg. (cherez Sibir, Mongoliyu, Vostochny, Sredny i Severo-Zapadny Kitai): Iz dnevnika chlena ekspeditsii P.Y. Pyasetskogo [i.e. Travel across China in 1874-75 (via Siberia, Mongolia, Eastern, Central and Northwestern China): From the Diary of the Expedition Member P.Y. Pyasetsky]. St. Petersburg: Typ. of M. Stasyulevich, 1880-1881.

[With]: Pyasetsky, P.Y. Neudachnaya ekspeditsiya v Kitai 1874-1875 gg. V otvet na zashchitu g. Sosnovskogo po povodu knigi ‘‘Puteshestvie v Kitai’’ [i.e.

Unsuccessful expedition to China. In Reply to the Defense of Mr. Sosnovsky about the book ‘‘Travel across China’’]. Three volumes bound in two bindings. [2 – t.p.], 560; [2 – t.p.], iii, 561-1122, 4, xviii; [2 – t.p.], 298, ii pp.

24x16 cm. With twenty-four tinted lithographed plates and a folding lithographed map at rear. Three volumes bound in two bindings. Private library stamp of D.K. Trenyov on the title page of the ‘‘Neudachnaya Ekspeditsiya’’. Period style half leather with marbled papered boards and gilt lettered titles on the spines. Text with occasional mild foxing, map with a tear neatly repaired, otherwise a very good copy.

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Binding. No 06

Illustrations. No 06

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First edition of a rare Russian imprint with only eight paper copies found in Worldcat. Firsthand account of the 1874-75 Russian surveying expedition to the little-known areas of the northwestern China and the Gobi Desert under command of Captain of Imperial General Staff Yulyan Sosnovsky (1842-?). Amid the intensifying Great Game Russia was looking for the development of diplomatic and trade relations with China, as well as for the investigation of possible routes to Tibet. The 1870s saw several military reconnaissance expeditions organized by the Russian government, including an earlier one, led by Sosnovsky to the upper reaches of the Black Irtysh in northwestern China (1872-73).

The 1874-75 “scientific and trade” expedition was the result of the mutual work of the Imperial Ministries of Finance, Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of War, and aimed to ascertain the shortest way from western Siberia to the Sichuan province in southwestern China; to outline the best sites for prospective Russian trade, and to gather information about the Dugan Revolt in western China (1862-77). The expedition party numbered nine people, including Yulian Sosnovsky, topographer Captain Zinovy Matusosky (1843-?), doctor and artist Pavel Pyasetsky (1843-1919), photographer Adolf Boyarsky, translators and guards.

The expedition left Russia from the border town of Kyakhta in July 1874 and proceeded to Beijing via Ulan-Bator, Gobi Desert, and Kalgan (Zhangjiakou); went to Tianjin, took a steamer to Shanghai, and went up the Yangtse to Nanjing and Hankou. Then they followed the ancient Silk Road to the upper reaches of the Han River where the main survey started; visited Hanzhong and Lanzhou (where they crossed the Yellow River); followed the Great Wall of China to Suzhou (Gansu Province) and went across the western Gobi Desert to the Hami Oasis.

Then they crossed Tian Shan Mountains and proceeded northwest via Barkul (Zhenxi Fu) and Guzhen, arriving to the Russian border post at Lake Zaysan in October 1875. The expedition resulted in the discovery of a new route to China which turned out to be more than 2000 versts shorter than the one known before.

The book was written by the expedition doctor and artist Pavel Pyasetsky; twenty-four lithographed plates illustrating the text were made after his original sketches taken from nature. Pyasetsky was a prolific artist and produced over a thousand sketches during the travel, which became the basis of his unique watercolour panorama “From the

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Illustrations. Map. No 06

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Middle China to Western Siberia” which measured 72 m. The main text is supplemented with a “List of plants, collected on the way from Fancheng to Zaysan border post (Provinces of Hubei, Shaanxi, and Gansu, and Mongolia)”; a “List of drawings made during the travel and comprising the exhibition in the Imperial Academy of Arts in 1876,” and an article by N. Petrovsky “Scientific and trade expedition to China in 1874-75”; the folding lithographed map outlines the route of the expedition.Pyasetsky’s book was awarded the gold medal of the Russian Geographical Society.

The second volume is bound with another work by Pyasetsky written a year later as a reply to the criticism of his “Puteshestvie” by the “Golos” newspaper, and shedding light to the controversy which existed between the expedition members. In the first two volumes Pyasetsky on numerous occasions accused the head of the party Yulian Sosnovsky in the abuse of power and expedition money; the “third” part is his passionate pamphlet which brings out more proofs of Sosnovsky’s misconduct; some copies have it bound together with the main text.

A year later Sosnovsky published his own version of the events, thus continuing the “pamphlet war” (Sosnovsky, Y. Ekspeditsiya v Kitai v 1874-75. St. Petersburg, 1882). Overall an interesting Russian work on Inner China with relations to the Great Game in Central Asia.

5,250USD / 41,100HKD

07

[ H O N G KO N G , CA N TO N & S A I G O N ]

Staniukovich, K.M. Iz Krugosvetnogo Plavaniya: Ocherki Morskogo Byta [i.e. From a Voyage Around the World: Sketches of Everyday Life at Sea]. St. Petersburg: Typ. of V. Golovin, 1867. [2], 381, [1] pp. 14x11,5 cm. Period style quarter leather. Title page with a minor restoration on the lower margin, otherwise a very good copy.

First edition. Very rare Russian imprint with only one paper copy found in Worldcat (The British Library). This is the first book and the first work in the genre of “stories about naval life” written by a prominent Russian writer Konstantin Staniukovich. Published by a small private typography, the “Sketches of Everyday Life at Sea” are very rare and anticipate the later great success of Staniukovich’s “Morskiye Rasskazy” (“Sea Stories”) – which were published in a revised and enlarged form in 1888 and made the author widely popular in the Imperial and later

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Binding. No 07

Title page. No 07

Soviet Russia. The “Sea Stories” are now considered classic literature for youth and four Russian movies based on the book were made in 19502008.

The “Sketches of Everyday Life at Sea” were published shortly after Staniukovich’s return from a three-year naval service in Southeast Asia, Russian Far East and North Pacific (1860-63), which he spent on several Russian naval ships (corvette “Kalevala”, transport ship “Yaponets”, clipper “Gaidamak”, and others). The book includes nine stories, some of which were first published in 1861-1864 (“Morskoy Sbornik” and other Saint Petersburg literary magazines). Very interesting is the chapter describing Staniukovich’s week-long stay in Hong Kong and Canton, together with Russian naval corvette “Kalevala.” The author gives a vivid picture of Chinese port merchants, main trade streets, tea and opium trade, beggars and thieves, markets, houses and gardens, children abductions, high level of literacy, religion, wide-spread Catholicism and little influence of Orthodox Christianity, punishments etc. The next chapter contains an extensive essay on Cochinchina (Vietnam) which contains the history of relations between France and the Kingdom of Annam, an eyewitness account of the final stage its conquest by the French in 1862, and description of Saigon where Staniukovich lived for a month and a half. The other chapters describe “Kalevala’s” voyage in October 1860-August 1861: “From Brest to Madeira”, “Madeira and Cape Verde”, “Life [on board] in the tropics” (including crossing the Equator in the Atlantic Ocean); “In the Indian Ocean” (from Cape of Good Hope via

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Sunda Strait to Batavia); “Abolishment of corporal punishments”; “Kuzka’s love (a short story)”; “Storm (a sketch)”.

“The son of an admiral, Staniukovich was born into a family with a long naval tradition. He studied at the Naval Cadet Corps in St. Petersburg from 1857 to 1860. In 1860 he completed the voyage described in his first book of sketches, “From a Voyage Around the World” (1867). Staniukovich retired from the navy in 1864 with the rank of lieutenant and taught school in a remote village of Vladimir Province in 1865 and 1866. In 1884, Staniukovich was arrested for his association with revolutionary Populist (i.e. Narodnik) émigrés; after a year of imprisonment he was exiled to Tomsk for three years…” (The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd Edition. English translation).

2,750USD / 21,500 HKD

08

[ H O N G KO N G & S I N G A PO R E ]

Vysheslavtsev, A.V. Ocherki Perom i Karandashom iz Krugosvetnogo Plavaniya v 1857, 1858, 1859 i 1860 godakh [i.e. Sketches in Pen and Pencil from the Circumnavigation in 1857, 1858, 1859 and 1860]. St. Petersburg-Moscow: M.O. Wolf, 1867. Second corrected edition. [4], iii, 592 pp. Ca. 24,5x18 cm. With a lithographed title page and twentythree tinted lithographed plates (complete). Contemporary quarter leather with cloth boards; spine with gilt tooled ornaments and gilt lettered title. Mild water stain on the half title, paper slightly age toned, binding slightly rubbed on the spine, but overall a beautiful copy of this rare travel book.

Rare Russian imprint with only seven paper copies found in Worldcat. Early interesting Russian circumnavigation account, with the first illustrations drawn by a Russian artist which depicted Singapore and its Chinese and East-Indian inhabitants. The book described the voyage around the world executed by a Russian naval clipper “Plastun” in 1857-1860. “Plastun” was a part of a group of Russian propeller driven naval ships which were sent to visit the newly acquired Russian territories in the Far East (annexed with the signing of the RussianChinese Treaty of Aigun in 1858) and to establish Russian presence in Chinese and Japanese ports. Having left Kronstadt, the ship called at the Atlantic Islands (Madeira, Tenerife, Cape Verde, Ascension Island and

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Cover. No 08

Illustration. No 08

Illustration. No 08

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others), rounded Cape of Good Hope, visited Singapore, Hong Kong, several bays of the new Russian Amur region, Vladivostok and Nikolayevsk; spent almost a year in Japan, and returned to Kronstadt via Hawaii, Tahiti, Strait of Magellan, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro.

The book was written by “Plastun’s” doctor Alexey Vysheslavtsev (1831-1888). Several chapters (including the essays about Cape of Good Hope, Atlantic Ocean, Hong Kong, Edo and others) were first published in the “Russky Vestnik” magazine in 1858-1860, under the general title “Letters from clipper Plastun.” Chapters 3 “The Malay Sea” and 4 “Hong Kong” describe “Plastun’s” voyage to Singapore through the Sunda Strait and Java Sea, and thence to the South-China Sea and Hong Kong. The description of Singapore where “Plastun” stayed for a week in July 1858 is one of the earliest detailed accounts of the city made by a Russian. Vysheslavtsev included a brief history of British colonisation of Singapore, wrote about its economy and trade, city structure, European, Chinese, Indian and Malay quarters, gave a vivid description of everyday life in Singapore – street traders, Chinese house boats on the river, a performance in a native Indian theatre, manners and appearance of Chinese, Indian and Malay inhabitants, including Indian jugglers (illustrated with his original drawings reproduced in the book); noted about the monument to Sir Stamford Raffles which was under renovation at the time of Vysheslavtsev’s visit etc. A special part is dedicated to Vysheslavtsev’s visit to the Whampoa estate near Singapore (modern-day Novena planning area of Singapore’s Central Region), a conversation with the estate’s founder and owner Hoo Ah Kay (18161880), and a side trip to several smaller islands in the Singapore Strait.

The chapter about Hong Kong talks about structure and architecture of Victoria City, sampan and junk boats, appearance and costumes of Chinese women, Hong Kong geography and unhealthy climate, history of British colonisation, local police force, frequent attempts by Chinese patriots to kill European residents (often by poisoning), street markets and traders, a dinner with the Governor of Hong Kong John Bowring in his residence (one of Bowring’s daughters told Vysheslavtsev that the whole family had just survived an attempt of poisoning); nearby Whampoa Island (near Canton) where “Plastun” underwent renovation; Chinese rice fields and agriculture; the nature of typhoons and how a ship can survive them; the latest events of the Second Opium War; the beginning of French conquest of Cochinchina; opium smoking and trade; Christian missionaries in China; etc. Chapter 7 of the account

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titled “The Pacific” contains a captivating description of the visit to Honolulu: city description, Diamond Hill, local society, funerals of a king’s nephew, local police, public prosecution, Waikiki village, Nuuanu Pali lookout, hula hula dance, personality of Kamehameha IV who received the officers of the Russian squadron in his palace; “Tahitian” part talks about Papeete and environs, history of discovery and colonisation of the island, king Pomare I, breadfruit trees, Papeuriri, local school, Fautaua waterfall, Moorea, introduction to the queen Pomare IV, and others.

The first edition of the book was published in 1862 by the Russian Naval Ministry which was in charge of publication of a number of important Russian expedition accounts in the 1800-1840s (voyages

by Sarychev, Krusenstern and Lisyansky, Golovnin, Kotzebue, Luetke, Bellingshausen, Wrangel, and others).

Our second edition of the book was issued five years later by a major commercial Saint Petersburg publisher Mauritius Wolf, this publication included twenty-three lithographed plates (the same amount as in the Russian State Library copy) and is complete, although the title page calls for twenty-seven, like in the first edition.

The completeness is confirmed by Forbes 2773. Among the illustrations are the views of Ascension Island, the Whampoa estate near Singapore, Hakodate, several bays in the Russian Far East, the Strait of Magellan, an embankment in Rio de Janeiro; portraits of the natives from the Cape of Good Hope and Singapore, Gilyaks from the Amur Region, Japanese in Edo and Hakodate, and others. The “Pacific” plates include views of the Oahu Island, Pali (Oahu), two group portraits of Tahitian girls and the “kanakas” (meant as native people of the Pacific islands), Fautaua waterfall (Tahiti), portrait of a New Caledonian on Tahiti, and three different views of the Papetoai Bay (Moorea).

“Vysheslavitsev was both observant and adept at recording his impressions.., a second edition was published in 1867; see No. 2773.

Both editions are rare” (Forbes 2514). Overall a very interesting early Russian account of South-East Asia and the Pacific Islands including Hawaii.

6,500USD / 50,900HKD

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09

[ FA R E A S T E R N H U N T I N G ]

Cherkasov, A.A. Zapiski Okhotnika Vostochnoi Sibiri (1856-1863), Zaklyuchayushchie v sebe: Nekotorye Zamechaniya, Kasayushchiyesya Sobstvenno Tekhnicheskoy Chasti Okhoty; Opisaniye Razlichnykh Zverey, Obitayushchikh v Neob’yatnykh Lesakh i Stepyakh Vostochnoy Sibiri... [i.e.

Notes of a Hunter from Eastern Siberia (1856-1863), Including: Some Notes Regarding the Technical Part of Hunting; Description of Different Animals Inhabiting the Spanless Forests and Steppes of Eastern Siberia...].

St. Petersburg: Published by bookseller S.V. Zvonaryov, 1867. [4], iv, [4], 707 pp. 23,5x16,5 cm. With several woodcuts in text. Contemporary quarter leather with original pebbled papered boards; rebacked in style, spine with raised bands and gilt lettered title. Title page with a minor loss on the blank outer margin neatly repaired, some mild foxing throughout, otherwise a very good copy.

First edition of a very rare Russian imprint with only one paper copy of this first edition found in Worldcat. This “encyclopaedia” on Siberian hunting written by a Russian mining engineer, hunter, ethnographer and writer Alexander Cherkasov (1834-1895), during his service in 1856-1863 on the gold mines in Dauria (Transbaikal region).

The book contains a captivating description of Eastern Siberian animals and ways of trapping and hunting them: there are 21 sketches about predators (including bear, wolf, fox, lynx, wolverine, marten, sable, stoat, badger, and others) and 12 sketches about “edible” animals (including moose, Manchurian wapiti, Capreolus, deer, wild boar, hair, squirrel, and others). There are also characteristics of guns, traps and weapons; descriptions of the use of dogs and horses for hunting, advice on camping in taiga, and interesting ethnographical sketches on manners and customs of hunters in Siberia.

Several chapters from the book were first published in the Saint Petersburg “Sovremennik” and “Delo” magazines in 1866 and 1867.

The book became very popular in Russia and Europe: second Russian enlarged and corrected edition was published in 1884 by A.S. Suvorin; the book was translated into German (Berlin, 1886), and French (Paris, 1896 and 1899); in the 20th century there were five editions of the book published in the USSR.

Alexander Cherkasov graduated from the Mining Cadet Corps in Saint Petersburg in 1855, and was sent to the Nerchinsk Mining Dis-

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Binding. No 09

Title page. No 09

trict, where the first private reading of his yet unpublished “Notes of a Hunter from Eastern Siberia” took place in 1864. Since 1871 he was the director of the Suzun copper melting factory in the Altai Mountains. In the 1880s Cherkasov lived in Barnaul where he was elected the City Golova (head of the municipal legislative branch); in the 1890s he moved to Yekaterinburg and was also elected its City Golova. The “Notes of a Hunter from Eastern Siberia” was the only book of Cherkasov’s stories published during his life; separate essays were also published in the “Priroda i Okhota” (i.e. Nature and Hunting) magazine in 1883-87, noteworthy are his memories about hunting with Alfred Brem in 1876 near Barnaul.

2,500USD / 19,600KHD

10

[ S I B E R I A – K YA K H TA T E A T R A D E ]

[Official Broadside, Titled:] Pravila dlya Vodvoreniya v Kyakhtinskoy Torgovoy Slobode i Propuska Tuda Raznogo Roda Lyudey [i.e. Rules for the Settlement in the Kyakhta Trade Quarter and Passes for Different Kinds of People]. [St. Petersburg], 19 March 1854. 2 pp. 35x22 cm. Foldmarks, left margin with minor tear after being removed from a stub, Soviet bookshop’s stamp on verso, but overall a very good document.

Official rules regulating residence in the Kyakhta trade quarter, a major centre of Russian-Chinese tea trade in the 18-19th centuries.

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No 10

The rules were issued by the Siberian Committee (the main government body administering Siberia in the 1820-1860s), with the original being signed by the Committee’s chairman count A. Chernyshyov, and six members: count P. Kiselyov, count L. Perovsky, D. Bibikov, N. Annenkov, count V. Panin and P. Brok. The right to reside in Kyakhta was granted to local government officials, merchants, various types of workers, property owners and their family members. The paper regulates the issue of special passes for the visitors of Kyakhta; convicted smugglers were banned from entering the quarter.

“Kyakhta, also spelled K’achta, formerly (until 1934) Troitskosavsk, town, Buryatia, south-central Siberia, Russia. It lies in the basin of the Selenga River, on the frontier with Mongolia. The town is on the railway and motor road from Ulan-Ude to Ulaanbaatar; both routes follow an ancient caravan track that was the only recognized link between Russia and China in the 17th and 18th centuries. The Russian fortress of Troitskosavsk, founded in 1728 adjacent to Kyakhta village, was once a busy frontier post; it attained historical importance as a point of entry to the Russian Empire and was surpassed in this regard only by St. Petersburg and Riga” (Encyclopaedia Britannica)

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“While the Trinity Fort fulfilled administrative and security functions, trade was handled by the adjacent settlement of Kyakhtinskaya Sloboda (Kyakhta Quarter), also founded in 1727. Here Russian merchants gathered to trade fur, leather, hides and cattle for a variety of Chinese goods, including silk and some porcelain, but with special emphasis on spices such as ginger and rhubarb, which were highly valued for medicinal properties. By the 1760s, Kyakhta Quarter had become the primary border point for trade with China, and the population and prosperity of both Russian settlements increased accordingly. Chinese merchants gathered across the border in a third settlement, known as Maimachin—a generic Chinese term meaning “trading center.” By the late 18th century, the most significant import by far was tea, which for almost a century Kyakhta provided not only to the enormous Russian market, but also to much of Europe” (Kyakhta: The Russian source for all the tea in China/ Russia beyond the headlines online).

650USD / 5,000HKD

11

[ C H I N E S E -A R M E N I A N R E VO L U T I O N A R I E S ]

Totovents, Vagan. Lao-Ho. The story. Erevan: MOPR press, 1929. 12 pp.

18x13 cm. Original illustrated wrappers. Good, minor tear of the spine, private library’s stamp on the cover.

First and only edition. Very rare. One of 3000 copies. In Armenian. The book was printed in Armenia by the International Society of Aif for Revolutionaries (based in Moscow).

It’s a story of Chinese boy Lao-Ho leading the rebellion against the imperialist government. Vagan Totovents (1893-1938) was Armenian poet and writer, who fought along with Andranik Azanyan (1865-1927), the legendary general one of the leaders of Armenian national movement. Totovents was executed in 1937 during Stalin’s repressions.

350USD / 2,700HKD

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Cover. No 11

12

[SHANGHAI CONSTRUCTIVISM]

Grosse, L.Y. Ya, vy i on: Roman iz zhizni shankhaiskikh emigrantov [i.e. Me, You and Him: A Novel from the Life of Shanghai Emigrants]. [Shanghai]: N.p., 1930. [6], 317 pp. 13x9 cm. In original illustrated wrappers by A.A. Yaron. Very good/near ne condition. The spine is very carefully fixed.

Extremely rare. First and only edition.

Lev Grosse (1906-1950), writer and son of Viktor Grosse (1869-1931), Russian diplomat, one of the active members of the first emigration wave in Shanghai (this book is dedicated to him). His son Lev was one of a few Russian far eastern poets who were published in Europe and America up until 1941. He worked a lot as a translator, published his works in Harbin and Shanghai (even several poetry books), he led active literary life there but he was desperate for Russian language environment. In 1948 he came to USSR and worked as a translator for year, later he was arrested and died in camps in 1950s.

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Cover. No 12

Wrappers were designed by Russian emigrant artist Alexander Yaron (1910- 1911). Alexander didn’t receive a proper art education but achieved all his success by self teaching and working with leading artists of Shanghai (V.S. Podgursky, V. Zasypkin, et al.).

The wrapper design echoes the constructivist designs of Soviet books of the 1920s which is very unusual for the Russian Chinese books as they usually followed pre-revolutionary patterns.

In the 19th century, the Russian community in Shanghai was small - Russians appeared there only while passing to other cities. The sharp increase in the number of the Russian community was due to the arrival of the ships of the Siberian Navy from Vladivostok. In the last months of the civil war, this flotilla was one of the most loyal parts of the white regime. By 1925 there were already over 10 thousand Russian emigrants. The difference between Shanghai and other cities was that diplomats were involved in the legal arrangement of the newcomers there. The first concerns for receiving Russian refugees from Vladivostok fell on the shoulders of Consul General V.F. Grosse.

Worldcat locates copies in Yale, University of North Carolina, UC Berkeley.

1,000USD / 7,800HKD

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13

[ R A R E S H A N G H A I L I T E R A RY D I G E S T ]

Vrata. Dal’nevostochnye sborniki. Kniga pervaya [i.e. The Gates. Far Eastern Digest. First book]. Shanghai: Lit-khud. obiedinenie “Vostok”, 1934. 1 front., 12 ads, [4], 206 pp.: ill., 3 pl. 26x19,2 cm. In publisher’s printed wrappers. Very good. Loss of small fragments of the spine, staples with rust, a couple of pages a slightly loose. Owner’s ink stamp on t.p. and p.17.

First and only edition. Very rare. First of only two published issues of a rare emigrant digest. It was issued by art and literary association “Vostok” (i.e. The East) under the leadership of Mikhail Shcherbakov (1890-1956). “Vostok” was organized after a famous Shanghai literary group “Ponedel’nik” (i.e. Monday) broke up in 1933.

Vostok lasted only for a few years, and its most significant contribution was publishing of these two issues of “Vrata”. The purpose of the digest was “to reflect the life of Russian writers and artists in Far East and to show to Russian reader a fraction of rich Eastern culture” (from the introduction).

Fiction works and poetry by K. Baturin, B. Butkevich, Vsevolod Ivanov, Lu-Sinya (in translation), V. Obukhov, A. Nesmelov. Essays on Oriental studies by N. Rerikh, I. Baranov, T. Gol’tseva and others. The collection ended with brief information about the work done by the “Vostok” association since its inception, and then - with a rather voluminous bibliographic department containing reviews on most of the books recently published in the Far East. There were also articles on teaching of Dao, chinese characters, and a short account of Rerikh’s expedition from Ulaanbaatar to Tibet by one of the participants, P. Portnyagin. A few photographs from that expedition were printed in this issue. Positive reviews on “Vrata” were printed in californian almanac “Zemlya Kolumba” (i.e. Land of Columbus) and in magazine “Rubezh” (i.e.

Frontier) printed in Harbin.

In the interval between the world wars in Shanghai, as in Harbin, there existed a Russian diaspora of representatives of the first wave of emigration. It is estimated that in 1937, about twenty-five thousand Russians lived in Shanghai, making up the largest group of foreigners in the city by a large margin. Most of them emigrated from the Far East, where the so-called “black buffer of the White movement” lasted until the autumn of 1922. The creative life of Russian China in

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the 1930s-40s was rich and fruitful. There were dozens of literary circles and societies, publishers worked, there were newspapers. Thrown away by the revolutionary wave outside of Russia, many famous poets and writers lived and worked there.

1,500USD / 11,700HKD

Cover. No 13

Photographs. No 13

Illustrations. No 13

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14

[ C H I N E S E A RT I N U S S R ]

Vystavka kitaiskoi zhivopisi [i.e. Exhibition of Chinese Art]. Leningrad: Gosudartsvennyi Ermitazh, 1934. [2], 70, [2], [2] pp.: ill., 15 pl. 17x12 cm.

In publisher’s printed wrappers. Wrappers detached from the text block, small tears of the spine and wrappers rubbed in general, pen marks on the front cover and t.p. Otherwise a good and internally clean copy.

First and only edition. One of 3000 copies. Scarce. Half-title with title in French.

The moving exhibition was organized by professor and artist Xu Beihong (1895-1953) who came with the exhibition to the USSR. The 1934 exhibition was the first exhibition entirely devoted to Chinese painting. The exhibition presented old and new Chinese classical art.

Prior to that, neither in imperial Russia, nor after the construction of such exhibitions, was it arranged. It was in a great demand both in Moscow and Leningrad.

The catalogue includes 339 items by more than 100 painters and a few items from Hermitage collection (paintings, ceramics, porcelain, carpets). All items are divided into thematical categories and then into artist. Each artist’s name in Russian and Chinese with an indicition of birth place and sometimes education. Two introductions

by Xu Beihong and V.M. Alekseev, a prominent Russian philologistsinologist.

Chinese exhibitions held in the USSR since the 1930s, performed not only cultural participation, but also the political task of developing relations between countries.

750USD / 5,800HKD

Illustration. No 14

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Cover. No 14

Illustration. No 14

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15

[ U Y G H U R D I C T I O N A RY ]

Baskakov, N.A., Nasilov, V.M. Uigursko-russky slovar’ [i.e. Uyghur-Russian Dictionary].Moscow: Gos. izd-vo inostrannykh i nats. slovarei, 1939. 384 pp. 20x14 cm. In publisher’s red cloth with embossing. Very good.

First edition. One of 3000 copies. Rare. This dictionary includes about 12,000 Uyghur words with the application of the Arabic key and grammar of the Uyghur language. The purpose of this edition as stated in the introduction was to introduce the main manual for learning the language and reading literature published in the USSR in Uyghur.

To study the language of the foreign Uyghurs of the Western China, the dictionary is also supplemented with the vocabulary of Xinjiang newspapers and the key to read them.

The dictionary consists of a basic dictionary in the Latin alphabet, a transcription key in the Arabic and Latin alphabets, grammar of the Uyghur language, compiled on the basis of the language of the Soviet Uyghurs.

In the USSR, Uyghur was spoken by the people living in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. The name «Uyghur» was adopted in 1921 at a conference of Uyghurs in Soviet Turkestan. Most of Uyghurs live in the region of Xinjiang in the west of China. Outside Xinjiang, the largest community of Uyghurs in China is in Taoyuan County, in south-central Hunan. Modern Uyghurs have adopted a number of scripts for their language. The Arabic script, known as the Chagatay alphabet, was adopted along with Islam. This alphabet is known as Kona Yëziq (old script). Political changes in the 20th century led to numerous reforms of the writing scripts, for example the Cyrillic-based Uyghur Cyrillic alphabet, a Latin Uyghur New Script, and later a reformed Uyghur Arabic alphabet which represents all vowels unlike Kona Yëziq.

Binding. No 15 900USD / 7,000HKD

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16

[ C H I N A - F I R S T O P I U M WA R ]

Suimu Chijin [Crazy Man in a Drunken Sleep] 海外餘話 Kaigai-Yowa [i.e. Additional Strange Tales from Overseas]. [Japan]: Gyoyo-do, Ansei 2 [1855]. Second, but first illustrated edition. 5 vols. T.p., 19; 24; 23; 19; 19 double-ply leaves; with 20 double-page woodblock illustrations in text. 26x18 cm. Text and illustrations within single border, main text ten vertical lines. Original Japanese fukuro toji bindings: brownish paper covers with leaves sewn together with thread and original paper title labels on the front covers. Covers and title labels slightly rubbed and soiled, a mild water stain to several leaves in the end of vol. 5, otherwise a very good set.

Very rare Japanese imprint with only two paper copies of the first edition found in Worldcat (Kaei 4/ 1851, 5 volumes, no illustrations); and only two copies of this second illustrated edition found in Worldcat.

First illustrated edition of the important Japanese novelistic account on the First Opium War between China and Great Britain (1839-1845).

“Kaigai Yowa” was a part of the group of Japanese works about the Opium War, published in the late 1840s and based primarily on Chinese reports, starting with Mineta Fuko’s famous Kaigai shinwa [New Stories from Overseas] and Kaigai shinwa shui [Gleanings from the New Stories from Overseas]. “… these publications were strongly sympathetic to

Covers. No 16

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Illustrations. No 16

the Chinese and highly critical of the foreign “barbarians.” They also included many original woodblock illustrations that had no counterpart on the Chinese side” (Dower, J.W. The Opium War in Japanese Eyes: An Illustrated 1849 “Story from Overseas”/ Massachusetts Institute of Technology). The second edition fo the Kaigai Yowa was forbidden from sale (as follows from the note on the title page) and was intended for libraries.

3,250USD / 25,400HKD

17

[CHINA, VIETNAM AND SINGAPORE]

Kubota, Beisen. 米僊漫遊画乗 Beisen Manyu Gajo [i.e. Beisen’s China Travel Album]. Tokyo: Jihei Tanaka, 1889-1890. First and only edition.

2 vols. Vol. 1: t.p., 28 leaves, with 16 double-page and 17 single-page woodblock illustrations in text.; Vol. 2: 28 leaves, with 19 double-page and 13 single-page woodblock illustrations in text. 16x23 cm. Text and illustrations within single border. Original Japanese fukuro toji bindings: paper covers with hand coloured woodblock vignettes and titles on the front covers; leaves sewn together with strings. Ink written kangi on the

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bottom edges and back covers of both volumes. Red ink stamps on the first illustration in each volume. Covers and title labels slightly rubbed and soiled, otherwise a very good set.

Attractive collection of views of the Far East and South-East Asia, including Japan, China, Vietnam, and Singapore, depicted by a noted Japanese artist Kubota Beisen during his eight-month voyage to the Paris Exposition Universelle of 1889. The book was originally intended to be published in one volume, but due to a high public demand, the second volume was issued the next year (1890). Since the volumes were published separately, with a one-year gap, the complete sets are scarce.

The views show Kiyomi beach (Shizuoka prefecture, Japan), Nagato Bakan (Shimonoseki, Japan), Shanghai (Suzhou Creek, East Gate market, and others), Guangdong, Hong Kong (including the town of Kowloon), mountains of Annam, Mekong River; there are also portraits of Chinese soldiers, prisoners, women with children, rickshaws, palanquin carriers, barbers, opium smokers, actors (and an interior of a Chinese theatre), house boats, local birds and animals, Vietnamese villages, and a series of views of Singapore (the harbour, several street scenes, a market, a group of hunters with a killed tiger), et al. Each volume houses the first page of the printed pink wrappers and a table of contents, the first volume also has a calligraphic title page and a one-page introduction.

The front cover of the fukuro toji binding of each volume is decorated with the image of a steamship under Japanese flag sailing in a bowl of water.

No 17

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“ Kubota Beisen <…> is one of the most celebrated artists of Modern Japan. He was born at Kyoto, the ancient capital and well-known seat of fine arts; but unlike the works of so many artists from that city, his creations are characterized rather by bold design and lightness of touch that by elegance and elaborate finish. We may say that he is the first painter in the Japanese style who has freed himself from the fetters of the old rules. A gold medal was awarded to him by the committee of the Paris Exposition of 1889. In the Columbian Exposition, also, he received a first-class medal. During the late war [First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95] he went to the battlefields with the Japanese army.

After his return from the front, His Majesty the Emperor was pleased to order him to draw in the Imperial presence, which is a favour very rarely accorded to an artist in this country. Since 1892 Kubota Beisen has been, and still is, attached to the Kokumin Shimbun, each number of that daily newspapers being richly illustrated by his work. It was in his capacity as special art correspondent of the Kokumin Shimbun that he was allowed to accompany the expeditionary forces” (The Far East: An English Edition of the Kokumin-No-Tomo. Vol. 1. No. 1. February 20th, 1896, Tokyo, p. 29).

3,500USD / 27,400HKD

No 17

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II

MANUSCRIPTS

18

[ C H I N A – B E I J I N G - H A N K O U R A I LWAY ]

[Historically Significant Journal Recording a Travel from Peking/ Beijing to Hankou (a part of present-day Wuhan), along the Line of the Unfinished Peking-Hankou (Jinghan) Railway, with the Eye-Witness Account on the Railway Construction, Notes on the Meetings with the Railway Company Officials, Chinese Workers, Inhabitants of Nearby Villages, Local Places of Interest etc., Titled:] V – de Pekin à Hankao.

6-21 November [1903]. 32 leaves. 22,5x17,5 cm. Manuscript text in French. Black and brown ink on lined white laid paper (one page written in pencil), all entries with dates on the margins. Occasional markings in red or blue pencil in text. Period style half morocco album with cloth boards, spine with gilt tooled ornaments and gilt lettered title “PEKIN A HANKAO,” original paper wrappers bound in. Manuscript table of contents on verso of the front wrapper. First leaf slightly soiled on the bottom, paper slightly age toned, but overall a very good journal written in a legible hand.

Interesting historically significant journal describing a travel from Beijing to Hankou (a part of modern-day Wuhan) in November 1903; the traveller apparently was a French member of the “Société d’étude de chemis de fer en Chine,” a French-Belgian company which built the Peking-Hankou (Jinghan) Railway in 1897-1906. The construction of the Jinghan Railway started in the end of 1898, with the first sections being opened in 1899; the works were interrupted in the 1900 by the Boxer Rebellion, which led to the destruction of a large part of the railway and murder of many workers; the construction was resumed in early 1901 and finished in the end of 1905 (See more: The Peking-Hankow Railway// Bulletin of the American Geographical Society/ Vol. 38, No. 9. 1906, pp. 554-556). Although the journal entries don’t mention a year they were written, it was most likely 1903 (when the 6th of November fell on Friday, like it is recorded in the journal), a period of active construction of the remaining sections.

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No 18

The journal contains a detailed account of a 16-day trip from Beijing to Hankou, along the railway under construction. Being an independent manuscript on its own, it is apparently a part of a larger collection of eight such journals, describing the whole voyage from Paris to Macao via Siberia, Manchuria, Korea, Peking, Hankou, Canton, and Hong Kong (see the table of contents on verso of the front wrapper).

The author describes his travel from Beijing along the “Imperial Route” in the “Palace car,” his visit to a monastery and a pagoda in “Tcheng Ting” (Zhengding County), which hosts a large 25m Buddha statue. He then recounts a meeting with Mr. Sémat, who owns an “exploitation” and constructs a railway between “Shum te fou” and the Yellow River.

He also comments on the landscapes through which he travels by train, cart, horse and on foot: “The mountains of China are more distant, the villages more spaced out from each other; to my surprise on my left, [there is] a railway. It’s a line built by an English coal mining company, which begins from a point along the Wei Ho (Tau Kou) a little further than Wei Wei Fou and reaches the mines in the mountains, over there.

This is the way through which materials for the exploitation arrived; that is also the way by which the coal will be exported; but, until now, we cannot find any…” (in translation). During his trip, he meets many people who are involved in the railway construction, including in the

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railway construction, including Mr. Charignon, Mr. Job, Mr. Nimal, Mr .Devienne, or Mr. Icarro: “And here comes a cavalry: it’s Mr. Nimal, the sous-chef of the Tongan Tefan section […] accompanied by his drivers and his dogs. There, in the plains, are the Tchang Té Fou walls, and before that a quay on a little river […] We then follow the West wall of the city and arrive at the section, a yamen in the west suburb near where a train station will be next year.”

There are some interesting notes on Chinese railway workers: “From time to time, teams of indigenous people, very applied in their work on the bank which they level like a billiard: the appearance, that is the strong suit of the Chinese; does the railway also have such a groomed appearance? Very curious; for example, each coolie carries such a small amount of soil at a time, but there are so many of them, and we pay them each so little!” He also discusses the benefits of the railway development: “the peasants are peaceful and in favour of the railway and sensible to the benefits they will experience […] as long as we compensate them for the fields; the houses that we are destroying, the graves that we are moving, they declare themselves very satisfied. I sense, already, that China is not deep down what we judge it to be and that its people are, like all populations, sensible to the advantages of any progress of which they can experience the effects.” Other entries tell about his sleep over in a yamen (administrative office and/or residence of a local bureaucrat or mandarin in Imperial China) in “Honntan,” an accident with his horse after which he was carried by porters, surprised Chinese officials when he presented them a passport, the hospitality of the villagers et al.: “I had forgotten to note for yesterday that we had barely gone to bed at 9pm, when a huge explosion sound made us jump, then another […] it was the village mayor’s son who came out to make fireworks in our honor.” Overall an interesting eye-witness account of the construction of the Jinghan Railway - “the first great trunk line through China” (The Peking-Hankow Railway// Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, p. 554) which in 1957 became a part of the major south-north railway in modern China – Beijing-Guangzhou Railway.

3,250USD / 25,400HKD

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19

[ C H I N A – S E C O N D O P I U M WA R ]

[Album of Three Original Albumen Photographs, One Pencil Drawing and Two Watercolour Plans Illustrating the Third Battle of the Taku Forts during the Second Opium War in July-August 1860, Including Plans of the Forts and a nearby City of Tientsin/ Tianjin, a Scene with British Naval and Troop Ships Approaching the Landing Site at Pehtang/Beitang, and Group Portraits of the Officers of the British 31st Regiment of Foot who took Part in the Battle and were Stationed in Tientsin in 1861-62]. Ca. 1860-1862. 40x29 cm. With three original albumen photos from ca. 13x18,5 cm to ca. 5,5x8,5 cm, one pencil drawing ca. 11,5x28,5 cm, and two watercolour plans, ca. 24,5x38 cm and ca. 21x23 cm, mounted on period album leaves. All items but the last plan with period ink captions on the mounts, the last plan with the detailed descriptive key and the artist’s initials and date on the image (“Hy. Wm. B. 18.3/62”). Later maroon half morocco with cloth boards and gilt tooled title on the spine. The smallest photo slightly faded, but overall a very good album.

Historically significant collection illustrating the Third Battle of the Taku Forts during the final stage of the Second Opium War, compiled by and portraying British military officers - the direct participants of the events. Three original albumen photos are the group portraits of the officers of the 31st (Huntingdonshire) infantry regiment of the British Army which served in China in 1860-62 and together with the Anglo-French expeditionary force sailed from Hong Kong to the mouth of the Hai River in summer 1860. The force landed at Pehtang/ Beitang on August 2, ten days later captured the Taku Forts protecting the way upstream to Beijing, and captured Tientsin on August 30. The expeditionary force moved further and occupied Beijing on October 6, thus bringing the active phase of the war to an end. The 31st regiment remained in Tientsin for another two years, forming a part of a British garrison there, and took part in suppressing the Taiping Rebellion in 1862.

The photos show the officers – members of the “31st Regimental [Masonic] Lodge,” “The Officers 31st Reg. with the adjutant’s dog ‘Judy’ taken after the China War of 1860 at Tien Tsien,” and officers posing in “The 31st Regimental mess boat in a creek during the Taeping Rebellion, 1862.” The pencil drawing depicts a scene with British naval

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Photograph. No 19

ships “Steaming in to the attack of «Pehtang» with troop boats North China 1860. Drawn by Captain Hamilton 31st Regt.» There is also a large watercolour “Plan of Taku Forts and Tien-Tsin,” outlining the positions of the Royal Artillery, the 31st regiment, the Commissariat, the military store and the hospital. On the last leaf is a well-executed watercolour plan of “Tientsin with the position of the British Forces during the winter of 1861-62,” marking 24 objects, including the barracks of different regiments, hospitals, powder magazine, the police station, the church, commanders’ quarters etc. The plan is signed by “Hy. Wm. B.” and dated “18.3/62.” It became possible to identify the officers mentioned in the captions, as well as the author of the plan. The “Adjutant” whose dog Judy was shown on the officer’s group portrait was William Hill James who joined the 31st Regiment in 1855 and was rewarded with a medal with a clasp for the Battle of the Taku Forts. “Captain Hamilton” who drew a pencil scene with British ships proceeding to Pehtang was George John Hamilton, who fought with the regiment during the Crimean War and was also awarded for the capture of the Taku Forts; later he took part in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion and in the Abyssinian Campaign of 1868 with the 26th Regiment. Finally, the plan of Tientsin was drawn by a young ensign Henry William Bateman who joined the 31st regiment in February 1861, and was attached to the Royal Artillery during the Taiping Rebellion. All names were found in: Hart, H.G. The New Army List, and Militia List; Exhibiting the Rank,

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Standing, and Various Services of Every Regimental Officer in the Armyâ&#x20AC;Ś No. XCVII. London, 1863, pp. 186-187. Overall a very interesting collection of original sources on the history of the last stage of the Second Opium War. 5,250USD / 41,100HKD

No 19

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III

PHOTO ALBUMS

20

[ C H I N A – B OX E R R E B E L L I O N ]

[Japanese Lacquered Album of Fifty Original Hand-Coloured Albumen Photographs of Beijing and Tianjing, Most Likely Compiled as a Keepsake for the Officers and Soldiers from the International Forces of the Eight-Nation Alliance which Took Part in the Suppression of the Boxer Rebellion in 1900]. Yokohama: T. Moriya, ca. 1900-1901. 15,5x20 cm. 25 card stock leaves put together in accordion-like manner. With 50 hand coloured mounted albumen prints, each 9x13 cm. All captioned in negative in English (one with the publisher’s credentials also written in negative), thirty-seven with period ink inscriptions in French on the mounts. Original Japanese lacquered album with a pictorial image on the front cover. Publisher’s printed paper label reading “Manufactured

by T. Moriya, No. 18, Onoyecho Nichome, Yokohama, Japan” on the inner side on the rear board. boards slightly rubbed on the corners, several images slightly faded, neatly repair of a tear on the joint of two leaves with, otherwise a very good album.

Interesting example of a traditional Japanese lacquered album with an unusual content: seemingly classic views of the famous sites of the Chinese capital are interspersed with the group portraits of international soldiers and marines, photos of partly ruined Beijing city gates, and scenes of execution of the Boxers. Compiled by the owner of a Yokohama curio shop T. Moriya (Onoye-cho Nichome neighbourhood), the album was intended to become a memento of the recent Boxer Rebellion (1899-1901) and its suppression by the troops of the EightNation Alliance (Japan, Russia, Great Britain, France, United States, German Empire, Italy and Austria-Hungary). English captions to the photos, and two photo collages with the text in German and French suggest that the album was addressed to the European military men who took part in the suppression of the Rebellion. Most photos are supplemented with extensive period manuscript notes in French, which judging by their content were made by a participant of the events.

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Cover. No 20

The album includes two photo collages showing the flags of the countries-members of the Eight-Nation Alliance; the first collage also includes portraits of French and Japanese commanders (by the way, the Russian flag is shown with a mistake in the order of the colours); the second one displays the flags around German Imperial eagle and houses the text “Zur Erinnerung an den Feldzug in China, 19001901, Gott mit Uns” on top and bottom. Other topic-related photos include four different group portraits of the “International Soldiers in Tientsin” featuring soldiers and/or marines of all eight nations, as well as sepoys from the British Indian army, on three portraits the foreigners protectively hug or hold hands of a Chinese peasant or a boy. There is also a group portrait of the officers during a “Meeting of International Staff,” and a group portrait of the members of the Russian mission in Tientsin/ Tianjing. Three scenes of execution of the Boxers feature Japanese soldiers and sepoys witnessing it from the back. Six views of Tientsin – a gateway to Beijing and a site of the important battle between the Boxers and the Alliance’s forces (13-14 July 1900) show the Drum Tower in the Tientsin Castle, entrance to the Confucian temple, railway station, an iron bridge over the Grand Canal, and a commercial street with Japanese shops. There is also an important photo of Tientsin’s Catholic church of Our Lady of Victory (Wanghai Lou church), which burned down after the Allies’ bombardment in July 1900 (with an extensive manuscript note on the margin).

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Over thirty photos of Beijing include various views of the sites of the Forbidden City and the Summer Palace, there are two interesting views of the Zhengyangmen Gate, showing the considerable damage inflicted to it during the invasion of Beijing by the Eight-Nation Alliance in August 1900; the other photos show Japanese shops in the East Shiriro district; the Gate of China (Zhonghuamen, demolished in 1954 and replaced with the mausoleum of Mao Zedong), entrance gate to the Yonghe Temple, pleasure boats outside Beijing, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ferry boat outside Choyomon,â&#x20AC;? and others. Overall a very interesting visual source on the history of the Boxer Rebellion and the Eight-Nation Alliance.

1,850USD / 14,500HKD

Photographs. No 20

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21

[ C H I N A – M A N C H U R I A - DA L I A N ]

[Album of 36 Photogravures with the Plan, Street Views and Panoramas of the Newly Built City of Dalny, the Furthermost Russian Outpost in Manchuria in 1898-1905, and Modern-Day Dalian, the Major Seaport of the Liaoning Province of China, Titled in Russian:] Dalny, 1902. [Dalian], ca. 1902. 26,5x38 cm. With 36 photogravures, each with a printed title and a number on a paper label pasted to the lower margin. Original colour lithographed publisher’s wrappers, with a large gilt lettered title on the front wrapper. The leaves and wrappers fastened with original strings. Wrappers slightly soiled, with minor tears, right lower corner of the front wrapper with a minor loss neatly repaired, but otherwise a very good internally clean album.

Interesting rare album of photogravures bringing to life the short-lived Russian history of Dalian – now a major Chinese seaport and commercial hub in the Yellow Sea, which was known as Dalny (“A remote one”) during its construction and administration by the Russians in 1898-1905. Together with its current suburb Port Arthur (Lüshunkou) Dalny became a major battleground of the Russo-Japanese War (19041905) and was known as Dairen during the Japanese occupation (190545). Soviet troops leased both Dalian and Lüshun as military and naval bases in 1945-55; later both cities were handed over to the full control of the Chinese government.

No 21

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In 1902 Dalny was the newly-built furthermost Russian outpost in the Far East, a terminus of the Russian-built Chinese Eastern Railway, and a vibrant ice-free commercial port which took the second place after Shanghai in terms of goods turnover in the region from the Sea of Okhotsk to the South-China Sea. The album is a rare example of a special promotional edition published to advertise the new city and port to Russian businesses; most likely the album was printed in one of Dalny’s typographies. The album opens with a plan, showing modernday Dalian’s port and downtown core, with the Nikolayevskaya (now Zhongshan) Square in the centre; the plan marks European and Chinese parts, commercial and administrative quarters, port and harbour area; Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches, city museum, theatre, hotel, banks, police station, gymnasiums for boys and girls, street market etc.

The photogravure views proper include several panoramas of Dalny and its quarters, and about thirty street views, giving a detailed look at the distinctive architectural style of the new city, which combined the elements of neo-Russian and classic Chinese architecture. Interesting views show the buildings of the port administration, house of the Chief engineer, city hospital, Orthodox church and school, temporary office of the Russo-Chinese Bank, Hotel “Dalny,” city park and gardens, temporary building of the railway station, European cemetery etc.; the street views show Inzhenerny Prospect, Timmovskaya Street (with the street sign of “G.S. Zazunov’s Confectionery” clearly seen on the right), Belyayevskaya Street (richly decorated with Russian flags), Administrativnaya Square, Ugolny Prospect, “Temporary Chinese bazaar,” Moskovsky Prospect; Kiyevsky Prospect; there are also scenes of construction of a port’s dock and the electrical station, and a photo of “Arrival to Dalny of the Chief Engineer and City Governor V.V. Sakharov, on July 26, 1902” (Vladimir Sakharov (1860-1904), the chief designer and engineer during the construction of Dalny, previously the chief designer of the port of Vladivostok, died of typhoid fever during the siege of Port Arthur). The original illustrated publisher’s wrapper is decorated with a map of the Liaoning Peninsula, showing the location of Dalian and outlining the Chinese Eastern Railway. Overall a very interesting historically significant album showing the early years of Russian Dalian.

3,950USD / 30,900HKD

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Photographs. No 21

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22

[ C H I N A , S I N G A P O R E , P O RT A RT H U R A N D T H E C A P T U R E O F NANJING]

[Album with 86 Original Gelatin Silver Photographs, Apparently Taken by a Naval Officer while Serving on S.M.S. “Scharnhorst,” the Flagship of the German East-Asia Squadron in 1909-1914, with the Views of Tsingtao/ Quigdao, Hong Kong, Amoy/Xiamen, German Colonies in Samoa and New Guinea, Batavia, Singapore, Port Arthur, German Naval Ships and Commanders, and Scenes from the Second Chinese Revolution and the Capture of Nanjing in September 1913]. Ca. 1912-1913. 33,5x23,5 cm.

36 album leaves (14 blank). With 86 original gelatin silver prints from ca. 12x17 cm to ca. 8x11 cm. Most images numbered in negative, all with period manuscript ink captions in German on the mounts, some also dated in ink. Later navy-blue half morocco with moire boards and gilt tooled title on the spine. The first leaf with tears on extremities, not affecting the image and neatly repaired, several images mildly faded, but overall a very good album.

Historically significant album with a large collection of wellpreserved original photos depicting the service of S.M.S. “Scharnhorst” in 1912-1913, when it was the flagship of the German East-Asia Squadron stationed in Tsingtao (Quingdao, China). The photos illustrate S.M.S. “Scharnhorst’s” voyages to the Yellow Sea and former Russian naval base in Port Arthur, several Chinese ports in the Yellow Sea, Singapore, Batavia, Sumatra, and German colonies in the Pacific. Interesting images include six views of Batavia (with a view of a railway station and the arriving train); three views of a European-owned farm on the Labuan Island near Borneo, views of the Singapore waterfront (featuring the Savoy Hotel in the right), Hong Kong, Amoy (Xiamen, China), four interesting views of Port Arthur showing the destruction after the Russo-Japanese War and the decaying remnants of Russian naval ships, and others. There are also vivid portraits of a Chinese family, Chinese prisoners in Kaumi (Kiautschou Bay Leased Territory), a Chinese man dressed in a uniform of a sailor from S.M.S. “Scharnhorst,” natives from the Seeadler Harbour (Admiralty Islands, Papua New Guinea), natives in a canoe near the Rota Island (Marianas), native police parading in Apia (Samoa), a German sailor from S.M.S. “Scharnhorst” embracing a native girl in Sumatra, two daughters of a Samoan chief photographed on board S.M.S. “Scharnhorst,” four group portraits of sailors from S.M.S.

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“Scharnhorst” posing in front of a steam pinnace or on the rocks near Amoy, three vivid photo scenes depicting the celebration on board of S.M.S. “Scharnhorst” of the crossing the Equator near the Admiralty Islands (Bismarck Archipelago) &c.

The photos of German naval ships and commanders include several images of S.M.S. “Scharnhorst,” showing her in the dry dock in Tsingtao and in the open sea (while launching steam pinnaces); troop steamship “Patricia” arriving to Tsingtao (another scene shows sailors washing on board the “Patricia” in the open sea); torpedo boat “Taku,” constructed by Germany for the Chinese navy, but taken back after the suppression of the Boxer rebellion; and S.M.S. “Gneisenau” in the open sea. There are also three photos showing military exercise of German cavalry near Tsingtao, portraits of Prince Adalbert of Prussia (18841948) and Prince Henry of Prussia (1862-1929) during their official visits to Tsingtao in 1912, and a portrait of Kaiser Wilhelm II and Prince Henry of Prussia posing in the uniform of naval admirals.

Twenty-two photos in the back are an important historical source on the history of the early years of the Republic of China, depicting the events of the Second Revolution in the summer 1913.

The photos show German roadblock during the unrest in Hankou, Chinese government troops in Shanghai and Nanjing, Chinese artillery firing during the capture of Nanjing, Chinese troops in action during the capture of Nanjing, execution of the rebels, destroyed building in Nanjing etc. Overall a very interesting historically significant album.

4,250USD / 33,200HKD

Photograph. No 22

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Photographs. No 22

23

[CHINA - BEIJING]

[Album of Seventy-Five Original Gelatin Silver Photographs of Beijing and Environs Taken by a German Officer during the First Years of the Republic of China]. Ca. 1912-1914. 27x35,5 cm. 24 stiff card leaves.

With 75 mounted original gelatin silver photographs, including 19 large photos ca. 16,5x22,5 cm, four panoramas ca. 8x22 cm or slightly smaller, the rest are from ca. 12x16 cm to ca. 9x14 cm. The majority of photos with manuscript ink captions in German on the mounts, first three photos with additional later pencil captions in Russian. Period brown quarter sheep album with decorative Chinese silk boards, later rebacked in faux leather; decorative endpapers, all edges gilt. Binding slightly rubbed on extremities, corners slightly bumped, several images

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Photograph. No 23

with different degrees of silvering, but overall a very good album with interesting strong images.

Important collection of high quality original photos of mostly Beijing and environs, taken by a German officer right after the Xinhai Revolution and showing the first years of the young Republic of China.

Very interesting are two photos taken during the revolution events in Beijing: a panorama showing a “Fire in Peking on 29 February 1912” as a result of the Peking Mutiny which happened the same day, and a photo of German guards standing on watch next to their cannons in the Western diplomatic quarter in Beijing (the American flag is waving above the US embassy in the background).

There are also over a dozen photos of German military officers and soldiers, including two large images of an artillery unit; several photos from a German military camp in Huangtsun ten miles south of Beijing (group portrait of officers and soldiers with a waving German flag, artillery observation point, a detachment with machine guns, soldiers bringing a howitser in position); a view of the “German officers’ casino”; two group portraits of German commanding officers taken on January 27th 1913 and 1914 – the birthday of Kaiser Wilhelm II (the earlier photo has the names of the officers captioned in pencil underneath), and four pictures from the military review during the visit of Elmershaus von Haxthausen (1858-1914), German minister to China in 1911-14 (two photos also have pencil captions identifying the depicted officials).

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The photos of Beijing include several views of the Forbidden City (a procession with a palanquin leaving the Tiananmen Gate, general public at the Meridian Gate, general views, and others), Yellow Temple, the Temple of Heaven, Hatamonn Gate (Chongwenmen) and a view from the Hatamonn bridge (showing a part of the European diplomatic quarter and a sports field), â&#x20AC;&#x153;Deutsches Torâ&#x20AC;?, Hall of Classics (Beijing Guozijian), five photos of the Beijing Ancient Observatory (with closeup views of the astronomical instruments), Coal Hill in the modern-day Jingshan Park just north of the Forbidden City, the Temple of Earth, a series of six images of the Summer Palace and nearby Kunming Lake, the Grand Canal in the Tongzhou district, Marco Polo (Lugou) Bridge (southwestern Beijing). There are also two photos of the Ketteler Gate and Cross in Beijing: both were erected after German ambassador in China Clemens von Ketteler had been killed during the Boxer Rebellion.

The Gate was erected in 1903 on the site of his murder in the Dongdan neighbourhood and was relocated and renamed in 1918.

Photographs. No 23

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A dozen images depict the “Taji-tai-tze” temple and mountain (Guoquing Temple on Mount Tiantai?), with general views taken from above, photos of the priests’ graves, “the tree of life,” the entrance gate, the interior of the inner temple et al. Other photos include two views of the “Nankau Pass” (Juyong Pass) over the Great Wall of China, with one image showing a group of German officers standing on the Wall; three views of the Ming Tombs (the stone archway, the entrance to the Sacred Road, and German soldiers posing in front of the Changling Tomb), and others. The album closes with a portrait of a young German officer mounted on a horse, apparently, the album’s compiler. Overall an historically important well-preserved photo collection illustrating German involvement during the first years of the Republic of China.

5,250USD / 41,100HKD

No 23

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24

[ R U S S I A N C H I N E S E B O R D E R TOW N - B L AG OV E S H C H E N S K ]

[Album of Ninety-six Original Gelatin Silver Photographs of Blagoveshchensk on the Amur River, Showing Major Trading Houses and Shops on the Bolshaya Street, Girls’ School, Cathedrals and Churches (Demolished in Soviet Time), the Triumphal Arch, Customs House and Steamers on the Amur River, Chinese Villages on Amur’s Right Bank, Chinese workers, Russian Peasants, and Others]. Ca. 1910s. Ca. 26x34,5 cm. Twelve album leaves. Ninety-six mounted gelatin silver prints, each ca. 7x10 cm. No captions. Period brown quarter faux leather album with paper boards, rubbed on extremities, corners slightly bumped. Several images slightly faded, but overall a very good album.

Interesting album of rare photos of Blagoveshchensk, the centre of the Russian Amur oblast and an important port on the Amur River located just about 500 meters from Chinese city of Heihe on the right bank of the river. Blagoveshchensk was founded on the confluence of the Amur and Zeya Rivers in 1858 and became an important trade center in the early 20th century due to the lucrative gold extraction industry on the river and the proximity to the state border with China.

The main street of Blagoveshchensk – Bolshaya – accommodated the offices of the main Siberian trade houses, the port numbered over 150 steamers and over 200 barges. In the course of the Russian Civil War (1918-1922) the city was occupied by Japanese troops for two years. In the 1980s Blagoveschensk was a closed city, and visits without special permission were not allowed. The construction of the international automobile bridge over the Amur River started in 2016. The bridge is going to connect Blagoveschensk and Heihe on the Chinese side by 2019.

The photos in the album were apparently taken by a welloff Blagoveshchensk resident, and include over a dozen views of the Bolshaya Street (now Lenina Street), showing Kunst and Albers department store (built in 1894, one image shows the store with the sign “Christmas fair”), Siberian Trade Bank, Trade house “Kokovin and Basov,” Torgovaya Square (now Victory Square) with open air wooden pavilions, shops of I.K. [?] Mazur, V.M. Pankov, Matveyenko bros., “Japanese shop Tokio-Yoko, goldsmith,” garden supplies shop, first city electric station “Vseobshchaya Kompaniya Elektrichestva” (built in 1908), Cathedral of the Intercession of the Theotokos (demolished in 1980, new cathedral

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Photographs. No 24

of different design built in 1997-2002), Alexeyevskaya school for girls (on the corner of Bolshaya Street and American side-street), entrance to the Voznesenskoye cemetery with an Orthodox Christian chapel (built in 1872, demolished in the 1930s), and others. There are also interesting views of the Triumphal Arch (built in 1891) and trade house “Mauritania” on the embankment of the Amur River, several photos of the steamers on the river (with two signs reading “Andrey” and “Peterburg”), views of the city embankment (showing cannons pointed towards the state border, frozen Amur, timber piles on shore), Amur River banks and villages on the Chinese side, Russian customs house, portraits of Chinese cart drivers, brick makers, Russian peasants et al. The album closes with three images of an open air church sermon and a church procession and over twenty portraits of Blagoveshchensk residents – apparently, the album compiler and his family.

2,500USD / 19,500HKD

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IV

MAPS

25

[ WA L L M A P O F C H I N A , C E N T R A L A S I A , R U S S I A N FA R E A S T ]

[Bolshev, A.A.] [Unusual Custom-Made Set of Sixteen Original Russian Military Maps, Joined Together and Comprising a Gigantic Lithographed Wall Map of the Countries Bordering Eastern Siberia and Russian Far East, Including China, Mongolia, Tibet, Korea, and Taiwan, Titled:] Karta Yuzhnoy Pogranichnoy Polosy Aziatskoy Rossii [i.e. Map of the Southern Border Region of Asiatic Russia]. [St. Petersburg]: Military Topographical Department of the General Staff, 1895-1899. Large folding colour lithographed map ca. 207,5x231 cm, consisting of 16 joined sheets, linen backed. Upper leaves with lithographed titles and numbers on the upper margins, lower leaves with lithographed dates and names of compilers on the lower margins. Several pencil inscriptions in Russian on the linen on verso. Paper slightly age toned, minor small tears or chipping on the extremities of several outer compartments, but overall a very good map.

Very rare custom-made set of sixteen highly detailed topographical maps, based on Russian military surveys and giving a thorough outlook on China, Central Asia, Tibet, Korea, Taiwan and border regions of Eastern Siberia and Russian Far East. The maps were issued by the Military Topographical Department of Russian Imperial General Staff, in the course of continuous research and exploration of the regions bordering Asiatic Russia. The first set of maps containing 21 leaves was first published in 1888 and was reissued with constant corrections and additions up to the 1930s; the final set of maps contained 39 leaves and covered the territory in Asia from the Black Sea in the west to the Sea of Japan in the east, and from the Ural Mountains in the north to Afghanistan and Himalayas in the south. Detailed and large-scale (40 verst in an inch), the map included all necessary geographic information, including relief, mountains, rivers, lakes, deserts, main railways and roads, being especially attentive to cities and other inhabited localities, thus fulfilling its main goal of thorough depiction of border regions. Over the

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years different leaves of the map were compiled by several specialists of the Military Topographical Department (V. Karchayev, Ogarkov, Lt.Col. Fedyukin, Vasilyev and others), under general guidance of General Andrey Bolshev (1828-1904), a member of the Russian Geographical Society and editor-in-chief of all maps issued by the Department since 1877.

Our set includes sixteen maps lithographed in 1985-1899, namely (only the first four maps have printed titles on the upper margins, the other ones apparently were trimmed during backing them with linen for the convenience of reading): V. Krasnoyarsk; VI. Irkutsk; VII. Blagoveshchensk & Tsitsikar [Qiqihar]; VIII. Vladivostok; XIII. Kobdo [Hovd]; XIV. Urga [Ulaanbaatar]; XV. Pekin [Beijing]; XVI. Korea; XXI. Hami [Hami Desert]; XXII. Lanzhou; XXIII. Kaifeng; XXIV. Shanghai, Nanking [Nanjing]; XXIX. Lhasa; XXX. Chengdu; XXXI. Chongqing, Changsha, Hankou [Wuhan]; XXXII. Fuzhou.

Compiled during the last phase of the Great Game, the map reflects geographical discoveries of all major Russian expeditions to Central Asia and Tibet, including Pyotr Semyonov Tyan-Shansky, Nikolay Przhevalsky, Grigory Potanin, et al. The Arkatag Range in the central Kunlun Mountains (north of the Tibetan Plateau) is marked as

No 25

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Przhevalskogo Range (named so by the Russian Geographical Society in 1886). The map outlines borders between the provinces of China, shows Mongolia as a part of China and Korea as an independent state; marks Port Arthur and Dalny on the Liaodong Peninsula; Trans-Siberian and Chinese Eastern Railway in their period state with all major stations.

Overall a rare set of this important Russian map giving a detailed picture of the southern border of Eastern Siberia and the Far East, the Chinese Empire, Tibet, Korea and Taiwan.

7,500USD / 58,700HKD

26

[ M A P O F N O RT H M A N C H U R I A ]

北满的地图 Běiman dìtú [i.e. Map of North Manchuria]. [China]: Dōngshěng tiělù jīngjì diàochájú jiānzhì, 1927. 174x190 cm. 1:840,000; smaller-scale map of Far East region 1:6,300,000. Relief shown by gradient tints. Foxing, soiling, tears along creases.

Very rare. In Chinese. A huge colorful map printed at the beginning of the Chinese Civil War under control of the Eastern Railway Economic Survey Bureau. The map displays the territory of Manchuria where the foreign influence predominated. The core object of this map is the Chinese Eastern Railway which was the clash of interests of China and the Soviet Union.

Due to the Russian merchants and employees moved to the Far East in connection with the railway building, the North Manchuria virtually transformed into the Russian territory.

In the 1920s, China had been an important Asian partner of the Soviet Union and, when the relations of countries were established, China continued the united administration of this transport line. This agreement had been broken by Chiang Kai-shek who began operations against the communist in 1927. The sharpest conflicts in Manchuria were provided near the Chinese Eastern Railway.

The railways are indicated in Manchuria, Japan, Korea and a part of the USSR. The sea routes are only on the smaller-scale map.

The only copy located at the Library of Congress.

2,500USD / 19,500HKD

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No 26

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27

[FULL MAP OF CHINA]

中华全图 Zhōnghuá quán tú [i.e. Full Map of China]. [Nanjing]: Dōngshěng tiělù jīngjì diàochájú jiānzhì, 1928. 171x186 cm. Full map 1:2,000,000; Xinjiang 1:4,000,000; smaller-scale full map 1:10,000,000; Hainan 1:2,000,000. Relief shown by gradient tints. Some soiling, tears along creases.

Very rare. In Chinese. A large colorful map of China printed under control of the Eastern Railway Economic Survey Bureau during the Chinese reunifying. While this map was being composed, the capital moved from Beijing to Nanjing and this information was kindly mentioned on the bottom of map. The railways over East China and sea routes through 11 Chinese ports are indicated. Apart of the Russian lines, the Chinese railways were expanded for the trade by 6 countries, including Japan, France, Great Britain and the United States. Together they covered the eastern and southern parts of the country.

The map excludes the territory of North Manchuria, the last piece of reunifying, but shows the fragments with Xinjiang and Hainan.

It is particularly interesting because the continuing military separatism was the serious problem facing the new government at that time. It had no authority over the spacious area of Western China and an unstable position on the islands. Xinjiang was under the strong influence of USSR because of the firm Russia-oriented international trade of this region. The local currency exchange rate depended on the Soviet Union and Xinjiang authorities had even raised the issue of its accession to the USSR. Another remarkable thing on this map is Outer Mongolia, separated from China but highlighted by color as its part (other countries have no color).

The only copy located at UC Berkeley.

2,500USD / 19,500HKD

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No 27

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V

NORTH KOREA

28

[ KO R E A N A R M Y ]

Koreiskaya Narodnaya armiya [i.e. Korean People’s Army]. Pyongyang: Izdvo literatury na inostr. yaz., [1968]. [166] pp.: ill. 29x21,5 cm. In original cardboards with photomontage dust wrappers. Dust wrappers with restoration of tears, otherwise very good.

A very rare propaganda album in Russian about Korean People’s Army published for the 20th anniversary of its creation, a major celebrated event.

The album includes a few paintings and agit-posters, numerous black and white and colour photographs of Kim Il-sung, military trainings, day-to-day life of soldiers, demonstrations, military equipment, cadets, pilots and tankmen, military schools; national sports and dances, football players, industry sites and workers. There are also a couple of photomontages, including dust wrappers.

As the slogan on title page goes ‘’Let’s destroy American imperial aggressors - archenemies of Korean people!’’ and the whole album is dedicated to showing the powers and growth of the army there are photographs of American military forces, their destroyed tanks and captives.

Such albums were published in Pyongyang in different languages for propaganda in other socialist countries - a tactic initially started by the USSR.

The Korean Army in today’s form was founded in 1948 and today with more than 5 million paramilitary personnel it’s is the largest paramilitary organization on Earth.

Not found in WorldCat. 2,500USD / 19,500HKD

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Front cover. No 28

Back cover. No 28

Photographs No 28

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Photographs. No 28

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