CHINA          

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A CURIOUSManuscript  Playlet — The Lovers

•  An apparently unpublished playlet by an unknown, apparently American writer. It is set in China and among its characters are Selamah (a daughter; Orontah's love), Moretah (Selamah's mother), Orontah (a soldier; the hero and lover), Konkuri (Orontah's friend), Verandah (Orontah's enemy), and Chi Mung (the emperor). We have identified no published piece with these dramatis personae, despite their (most teasing!) evocation of other romantic "orientalia." The paper on which the work is indited is commercial, faintly lined folio paper, watermarked "Amies Philada." and with a dove holding a sprig in its beak.

The play's length is that of a "filler" piece in a jam-packed 19th-century theatrical night of three or four plays (or parts thereof) and other "entertainments"—or, the length of a school or home production. The style is distinctly amateur/naive.  E.g., the euphonious exotic names are far from consistently Chinese and one character is "carried [from his 'chinese cottage'] to the ganges"; the author confuses exit and exeunt ("Exeunt Priest")—we wonder if this blithe vagueness as to geography and world cultures, and the seeming lack of even basic classical education, suggest a lively-minded and enthusiastically play-going but unrigorously schooled female writer?

Provenance: Gift inscription: "Horace W. Smith, Esq. to W.W., 1863." A pencil note says "By J. Howard Payne in his handwriting, W.W."—but the handwriting does not match that of Payne's MSS. at Yale and Brown Universities.

•  First leaf dust-soiled and now separated. Edges of some leaves chipped costing a few letters and, very rarely, an entire word; lost letters and words are easily supplied by context. Comfortable, for working with.

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TRAVELS of the“Second Benjamin”

•  Interesting travelogue, in which a Jewish scholar in search of the Ten Lost Tribes follows in the footsteps of medieval adventurer Benjamin of Tudela. Benjamin recounts a number of stories, some firsthand and some anecdotal, of the oppression and persecution of the Jews in various nations.

This is the second English-language edition, following the original French edition of 1856 (“Cinq Années”) and the subsequent, expanded German edition of 1858. The oversized, folding map marking Benjamin’s route was engraved by Engel & Co.

•  19th-century quarter black morocco with marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; back joint and paper edges slightly scuffed. Front pastedown with institutional rubber- stamp (no other markings). Pages very faintly age-toned, else clean.

“Without SorrowsNo One Becomes A Saint”

•  Each page contains 6 Chinese proverbs printed on the lefthand side, and an illustration in red ink printed at the right.

•  Publisher's illustrated paper boards. Pages clean. Near fine. Without the d/j.  (23663)

In the Dutch National Library — Not Reported Elsewhere

•  Extremely scarce Dutch Orientalia. These short stories set in China are illustrated with five lovely, elaborately hand-colored lithographed plates including two scenes of children—one in which they are blowing bubbles and one in which they are fishing out of a boat with a carved dragon prow. The first plate is very faintly marked "H.J. Backer," but the illustrations are otherwise unattributed. No holdings of this book are listed by RLIN, OCLC, or NUC Pre-1956; the only other copy we were able to find is held by the Dutch national library. The wait for "a better copy" is likely to be — long.

•  Not in Brinkman. Contemporary cartonné binding covered in decorative printed paper, shown above right; spine showing a small undarkened area where label is now lacking. Front joint tender. Lacking two leaves, pp. 33/34 and 39/40; some signatures loosening. Pages with a very few small spots, otherwise clean and pleasing.

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Where DoesTea Come From?

•  Aunt Martha tells her nephews the story of the teacup, i.e., where and how porcelain is made. She also tells stories about the cultivation and production of tea, sugar, coffee, salt, currants, and rice. Illustrated throughout with full-page and in-text engravings. Publisher's advertisements in the back.

Binding:  Publisher's black-stamped tan cloth, front cover with a full-color half-tone picture on-lay of two Chinese men painting vases in a porcelain workshop.

Provenance:  Gift inscription from Betty Rudolf to Betty Westcott, dated 1924, on the front free endpaper.

•  Binding with light scratches on front cover picture, traces of old pencil marks on front, and spots of soiling on back. Light soiling on endpapers; else, clean. Very good.  (22194)

The First CompleteTao in the West

Click either of the two images above right, for enlargement.

•  First printing in the West of the complete Tao te ching and the first translation of it into a Western language. A partial translation appeared in 1838. The Tao, one of the most important literary works of Chinese philosophy and the basis of Taoism, is printed here in Chinese and French with notes in French. The editor and translator was Stanislas Julien (1797–1873).

Uncommon: Of institutional copies, we only locate five in the U.S.

•  Cordier, Bibliotheca Sinica, 723. 19th-century quarter brown morocco with marbled paper sides. Joints just starting at top and bottom, with a bit of a “bite” taken at bottom of front one. Blank portion of half-title excised and replaced with later paper. Evidence of sometime water exposure, with some crinkling/cockling and faint outline of stain to upper outer page quadrants. Gift inscription on title-page partially blacked out. Overall a good copy of a scarce book.

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Culture & Commerce CONNECTED — 1846

•  Very uncommon sole edition: Cultural dominance is here proposed as a means of improving British commerce with India and China. The author suggests that the joys of Christianity and English literature will enable merchants to pursue free trade without military assistance, apparently with the goal of persuading the reader that missionary societies promoting English-languageprinting operations should be supported with financial contributions.

•  NSTC 2L4183; not in Goldsmiths'-Kress. Removed from a nonce volume and now in a Mylar folder. Pages clean. (10991)

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        FINANCE / ECONOMICS,  click here.

A BCP in Mandarin — A Remarkable
Survivor/Fragment

Click the middle or right image for an enlargement.

•  Vol. I of 3 of the first printing of the Book of Common Prayer in Mandarin. Very rare. The translators were two of the most important missionary-linguists in China during the last half of the 19th century.

Complete copies are rare: We trace only those at the British Library and the New York Public.

•  Griffiths, Bibliography of the Book of Common Prayer, 18-4. Fine copy, stitched as issued in tan paper covers; paper labels on front covers, lettered in black in Chinese characters. A little light spotting or foxing. Call number pencilled on verso of third leaf. (10847)

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TheFemale School at Fuh-Chau

•  Wood engraved illustrations include "Ohio Wesleyan University," "Winged Lion from the Ruins of Nineveh," "View of Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania," "Female School at Fuh-Chau, China," and "Central Methodist Church, Newark, N.J."

•  Original front wrapper present, but not rear one. Some chipping and definite wear, especially along spine. Old ink notations. A good copy. (9383)

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Native AmericanLanguages, Customs & ORIGINS

Click the interior images for enlargements.

•  Scherer attacks what he considers to be the two “grandes questions” regarding the discovery of America: whether or not the ancients knew of its existence, and what were the origins of its inhabitants. In pursuit of these questions, he gathers together various pieces of ethnologic and linguistic information on Native American tribes including the Iroquois, Huron, and Natchez, as well as other peoples like “les Kamtschadales,” “les Tschutsches,” Scythians, and Tatars. A “table polyglotte du langage” runs from p. 266 through p. 277.

Nine plates are included, the last of which an impressively oversized, folding map in French and Russian showing the river route from Yakutsk to Okhotsk; the map is labelled, “Par un Anglois nommé William Walton qui en envoya l‘original à Mr. Visher à Petersbourg le 15 fevrier 1743” and “Calquée d‘après l‘original et gravée par E. Dussy.”

•  Sabin 77608. Mottled calf, worn and cracking, covers framed with triple gilt fillets; spine with five raised, abraded bands and gilt-stamped, chipped floral devices in compartments. Front joint cracked and back starting, with cords holding. Some loss of leather to corners, base of spine.  Bookplate of the Bibliotheca Sobolewskiana.  Edges marbled; most pages clean, a few with varying offsetting.

A PRB&M “FEATURED BOOK”  —
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NO! Cacao from the Marañon —
. . . or, Silk from China!

•  Decree extending for yet another year a previous decree prohibiting importation of silks and cotton goods from China, Asia, and Africa, and cacao and sweets from Portugal and Brazil (i.e., cacao from the Marañon region). With manuscript additions at the end. Decorative woodcut initial "D" at the beginning.

•  Not in Alden & Landis, European Americana. Modern half vellum.

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The FirstEnglish Embassy to CHINA —
Told Of,
   in FRENCH Here

•  Third edition. First published in 1797 (London, 8vo) under the title “An Authentic Account of the Earl of Macartney's Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China," this is an account of the first British embassy to China, charged with opening up China to commerce and with establishing a permanent embassy in Beijing. The diplomatic mission failed as the Qianlong Emperor demanded that Britain accept the terms of the tribute system, a system which had governed China's foreign relations for nearly 2,000 years. Click the image to the left
for an enlargement.

Sir George Leonard Staunton (1737–1801), who accompanied ambassador Macartney (1737–1806) as secretary to the embassy, here provides a detailed description of the journey and of the Chinese court and customs (such as the practice of foot binding). Also described is the famous refusal of Lord Macartney to kowtow before the emperor, instead bending on one knee as he would have done before his king. Each volume illustrated with a frontispiece, including a portrait of Lord Macartney and one of the Emperor Qianlong (Tchien Lung).

•  Marbled paper boards, gilt-lettered on a leather spine label; binding rubbed and abraded, with paper loss at edges, joints, and corners, and small chips at head and foot of spine. Paper edges stained green. Ex-library: call number lettered in white on the spine, bookplates on front pastedowns. Frontispiece of vol. I stained and soiled on blank side and with stain at top edge of verso (not touching illustration); frontispieces of vols. II and III lightly stained on both sides without affecting illustration. Vols. III and IV, only, with half-title; vol. III with three long folding maps at rear. Elsewhere, occasional light to moderate staining, some light soiling to first and final leaves of each volume. Each map with short tear along gutter or fold (with tear not touching map itself), repaired on blank sides. Several page corners and margins with small chips. (11329)

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The Philadelphia Rare Books & Manuscripts Company