Medhurst, Walter Henry

Estimate

1,500 - 2,000 GBP

bidding is closed

Description

A Glance at the Interior of China, obtained during a Journey through the Silk and Green Tea Countries. London: John Snow, 1850 [but printed in Shanghai, 1849]
Paper

FIRST EDITION, London issue of the title-page, text and illustrations printed in Shanghai on Chinese paper (see footnote), 8vo (207 x 131mm.), [ii], inserted short letterpress apology slip, 192pp., 11 plates [9 folding], 8 full-page illustrations on 5 text leaves [verso and recto], publisher's blindstamped green cloth, slipcase, spine very slightly faded

Literature

Cordier (Sinica) II, 2117-2118; Löwendahl 1099; Lust 380

Catalogue Note

When Shanghai port opened to British merchants in 1842 as a result of the Anglo-Chinese treaty of Nanking, Walter Medhurst (1796-1857) quickly established an outpost of the London Missionary Society and a mission press, the first such modern press in China, where he printed numerous works in English and Chinese.

Notoriously independent minded, here Medhurst recounts his seven week journey in the spring of 1845, for which he donned disguise including dark glasses and a false pigtail. The diary of his journey includes detailed descriptions of the everyday life of the people he encountered alongside a lengthy digression on silk production.

The same sheets first appeared in "Chinese Miscellanies" No. 1, issued in Shanghai in 1849, and then reissued with a new title-page in London by John Snow the following year.