CHINA
CHINA
A
CURIOUS
Manuscript
Playlet — The Lovers
(ACTUALLY China??? Surely
Not Hardly!). Anonymous. Manuscript,
"The Lovers, A Tragedy in Five Acts. Founded on an incident in Eastern History."
On paper, in English. [Philadelphia?, ca. 1830]. Folio (32 cm, 12.5"), 14 ff.
(12.5 written on). 
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.
For
THEATER/THEATRE, click here.
Or
for MANUSCRIPTS, click
here.
“Without
Sorrows
No
One Becomes A Saint”
Chinese
proverbs from olden times. Mount Vernon, N. Y.: Peter
Pauper Press, ©1956. 8vo. [62] pp.; illus.
• Publisher's illustrated paper boards. Pages clean. Near fine. Without the d/j. (23663)
In
the Dutch National Library —
Not Reported Elsewhere
(Chinoiserie).
Verhalen uit China. Met platen. Leiden: P.J. Trap (pr. by H.R. De Breuk), [ca.
1825–45]. 12mo (18.8 cm, 7.4"). vii, [1], 135 (lacking pp. 33/34 &
39/40), [1 (blank)] pp.; 5 col. plts.
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.
For
BOOKS IN DUTCH, click here. Or
for ILLUSTRATED BOOKS, click
here.
ABCs around the WORLD — Illustrated Diderot, Denis. Caractères et alphabets de langues mortes et vivantes (Extracted from the Encyclopédie, ou dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers). [Paris: ca. 1750–72]. Folio (30.5 cm, 12"). 24 double-p. plts. (of 25).
Click the images for enlargements. 24 double-spread engraved plates of alphabets for various languages. They were engraved for the article on alphabets in the Diderot Encyclopédie, a massive 20-year project aiming to encompass every branch of human knowledge that was a landmark of Enlightenment-era philosophy, attacking superstition while promoting science, rationality, and scholarship. Many of the volumes were supplemented with illustrations, such as the plates present here, designed to facilitate comparing and contrasting the alphabets and basic writing conventions of “dead and living” languages.
Languages charted in these tables include “Tartares Mouantcheoux,” Tamoul, Telongou, Persian (ancient and modern), Armenian, Russian (ancient and modern), Coptic, Hebrew, etc., with the engraving done by master artisan Robert Bénard (fl. 1750–85).
• Half green calf with green marbled paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped title; slight wear to corners and spine extremities. Lacking one plate (#25). (24823)
“Novel Incidents & Personal Adventures” Hook, Robert; & George D. Hook. Through dust and foam: Or travels, sight-seeing, and adventure by land and sea in the far west and far east. Hartford, CT: Columbian Book Co., 1876. 8vo (22.8 cm, 9"). 456, [2 (adv.)] pp.; 16 plts.
Click the images for enlargements. 
Early Treatise on
Ancient Persian Religion
ILLUSTRATED Hyde, Thomas. Veterum persarum et parthorum et medorum religionis historia ... editio secunda. Oxonii: E Typographeo Clarendoniano, 1760. 4to. [20], 580 pp.; 6 fold. plts., 14 plts.
Click the images for enlargements. 
Chinese
characters and transliterated pronunciations for a substantial
number of words and terms. Among the 20 plates and tables illustrating the work
are images of sacerdotal rites, astrological symbols, and a dodo (!).
• ESTC T54341; Brunet, II, 393; Lowndes 1154. On Hyde, see: Dictionary of National Biography. Contemporary speckled calf, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label; leather scraped and rubbed in spots, front joint open, back joint starting. Front free endpaper and fly-leaf creased and darkened. Front pastedown with institutional bookplate and rubber-stamp; title-page with two early inked ownership inscriptions, verso institutionally rubber-stamped. Scattered light spotting. Outer edge of one folding plate a bit ragged; one plate with a short tear along fold just into plate. In fact quite a satisfactory copy. (22735)
Culture
& Commerce
CONNECTED
—
1846(Linguistic Imperialism).
Eclectikwn, Eis. Language in relation to commerce, missions, and government.
England's ascendancy, and the world's destiny. Submitted to the consideration
of merchants, statesmen and philanthropists. Manchester: A. Burgess & Co., 1846.
12mo. 23, [1] pp.
printing
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)
For
COMMERCE / TRADE /
TheFemale
School at Fuh-Chau Methodist almanac,
for the year ... 1852 ... comprising also a summary view of Methodism throughout
the world ... New York: Lane & Scott (Joseph Longking, Pr.), [1851]. 12mo. 60
pp., plus wrapper. 
• Original front wrapper present, but not rear one. Some chipping and definite wear, especially along spine. Old ink notations. A good copy. (9383)
For
more of WOMEN's
BUDDHISM in
High Asia & China Schott, Wilhelm. Uber den Buddhaismus in Hochasien und in China. Berlin: Verlag von Veit & Comp., 1846. Small folio (27 cm; 10.5"). 128 pp. .
Click the interior images for enlargements. Uncommon. OCLC locates only five copies in the U.S., of which one has been deaccessioned.
• Recent boards covered with German-style brown paper specked with black; paper label on front cover. Paper a little cockled on back cover. Old shelving numbers on verso of title-page and a four-digit number inked in lower margin of leaf A1; few dog-ears and one pencilled note. (24768)
The FirstEnglish Embassy to CHINA — Staunton, George, Sir. Voyage dans l'intérieur de la Chine, et en Tartarie, fait dans les années 1792, 1793 et 1794 par Lord Macartney, Ambassadeur du Roi d'Angleterre auprès de l'Empereur de la Chine ... Rédigés sur les papiers de Lord Macartney, sur ceux du Commodore Erasme Gower, commandant de l'expédition, et des autres personnes attachées à l'Ambassade, par Sir Georges Staunton; traduit de l'Anglais, avec des notes, par J.Castéra. Paris: F. Buisson, 1798. 8vo (21 cm). 4 vols. 
Click
the image to the left 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)
For
more ENGLISH POLITICS, click here. For
more BOOKS IN FRENCH, click here. For
18TH-CENTURY BOOKS, a
Around the World with aLITTLE TRAVELLER Steerwell, J. The little traveller. Philadelphia: W. Marshall & Co., 1835. 16mo (17 cm, 6.7"). [7]–30 pp.; illus.
Click any interior image for an enlargement.
12 hand-colored wood engravings of Laplanders, Highlanders, Greeks, Persians, Chinese, American Indians, etc., with the first engraving signed “HB” and the rest unattributed. The section on “Negroes” notes the “cruel” and “disgraceful” nature of slave trade; the one on the Scots notes they do love their bag-pipes; we hear that the Persians “exercise great hospitality to strangers.”
Uncommon. OCLC and NUC Pre-1956 find no holdings of this Philadelphia imprint.
Provenance: Pencilled ownership note, “Miss Emily Larned.”
• Rosenbach, Early American Children's Books, 680 (for first Baltimore ed. only); not in American Imprints. Publisher's printed blue paper wrappers, showing minimal wear to corners and spine extremities, faint spotting to front wrapper, overall in excellent clean condition. Front inside wrapper with early pencilled ownership inscription. Pages clean save for light offsetting towards back of book. (24580)
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JP in China! — click here. |
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