Guide Peking, Signed (2 results)

Very good. All 29 maps present. Some of the maps, including Hong Kong and Canton, laid on archival tissue. Others, more minor maps, exhibit minor verso reinforcements and/or splits along folds (but all content present). Original quarter-leather binding tight with guilt on spine. Hong Kong and Shanghai maps loose from binding. Size 9 x 6 Inches. This is the 1867 first edition of Nicholas Belfield Dennys (c. 1813 - 1899) detailed guide to the Treaty Ports of China and Japan, including a dramatic large map of Victoria, Hong Kong. Intended both for new residents and travelers, it is the first commercially distributed handbook to the post-Opium War Treaty Ports. There are an impressive 29 excellent maps, most fold out, all engraved in Hong Kong. Like the maps, the book was typeset in China, where place names and other content could be set in both English and in Chinese. A Closer Look The book features some 668 pages plus appendices. It introduces the treaty ports, describing each in detail, highlighting aspects of commerce, government, and geography, as well as history, architecture, social structure, civic support, and entertainment available to the foreigner. It also includes general overviews of China and Japan, describing language, culture, currency, and more. Over twenty cities in China and Japan are detailed, most with one or more representative maps: Hong Kong, Macau, Beijing, Canton (Guangzhou), Shanghai, Shantou, Xiamen, Fuzhou, Taiwan, Ningbo, Yangtze River ports, Tianjin, Nagasaki, Edo, Yokohama, and Hakodate, among others. The work ends with an interesting Appendix C, a 26-page 'Catalogue of books on China (other than philological) published on China and Japan in the English language'. Treaty Ports of China Treaty ports in China were a result of various 'unequal' treaties signed between Chinese Qing dynasty and foreign powers during the 19th and early 20th centuries. These agreements, often imposed on China following military defeats, allowed Western powers and Japan to establish zones within certain Chinese cities where they held legal jurisdiction and economic control. The most famous of these were Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Canton (Guangzhou). They became hubs of international trade and cultural exchange, but also symbols of foreign dominance and exploitation. The presence of foreign powers in these ports greatly influenced the social, economic, and political landscape of China, contributing to internal tensions and the eventual decline of the Qing. The dissolution of these treaty ports occurred gradually, culminating (mostly) in their full reintegration into Chinese sovereignty after World War II (1939 - 1945). Publication History and Census This book was written in 1866 by Nicholas Belfield Dennys, with assistance from William F. Mayers (1831 - 1878) and Charles King (1844 - 1933). The maps were engraved in China, and the book itself typeset in Hong Kong. It was published in London by Trübner and Company, and in Hong Kong by A. Shortrede and Company. In OCLC, we see examples of this first edition at the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library. We note an additional example at the National Library of Australia, Harvard, the Biblioteca Pública de Macau, and a few other institutions. It appears occasionally on the market, often with some or all maps replaced in facsimile. References: OCLC 457653562.

Second revised edition. Large colour lithograph folding map in rear pocket ('Plan of Peking inside its Walls', measuring 43x64cm), 6 folding maps, frontispiece and 22 plates. 8vo. Original decorated clothbacked boards (slightly stained), but overall still a very good copy, signed on the front free endpaper in English and Chinese: "A Souvenir from the author of his work to Miss Miller of Chefoo, in the hope that the description given in this work will bring back the Grandeur of Peking seen. E. S. Fischer whose Chinese name is Fei Shih, Xmas 1940". [ix], 237, xii(ads.)pp. Tientsin/Peking, Tientsin Press, "Fei-shih" (the Pityful one) is a pseudonym of Emil Sigmund Fischer (1865-1945), a banker from Vienna. Fischer came to China in 1894 and worked in Shanghai until 1898, before moving to Tientsin. He died in February 1945 in a Japanese PoW camp. This is one of the most accurate and well-researched guides to the capital and its surroundings with a wealth of maps, plans and illustrations. On the tile-page Fischer is credited with being awarded a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco in 1915 - without specifying what the award was for. The first edition was published in Peking in 1909. .