19
a VerY Bright coPY in the original cloth oF this iMPortant stuDY
53. Bredon, Juliet and igor mitroPHanoW. the Moon Year. a record of chinese customs and Festivals. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1927.
£250
8vo (216 x 142mm). original orange cloth, upper board blocked in black with a design of a censer and with a blind-ruled border, spine lettered and ruled in black, pictorial endpapers printed in orange, top edges orange, others uncut; pp. [i]-xi, [1 (blank)], [1]-514, [xiii]-xx; title printed in black and orange with vignette of a censer, half-tone frontispiece after Benjamin March, 2 colour-printed plates, 19 half-tone plates, some with illustrations recto-and-verso, and one folding chart of the chinese Year, bound to throw clear, woodcut initials, text printed in roman and chinese characters; minimal light rubbing at extremities, a few very light marks, some very light spotting, principally on endpapers and fore- edges, nonetheless a very good, bright copy.
First edition. the writer Juliet Bredon (c. 1881-1937) was the daughter of sir robert edward Bredon, Bt (1846-1918), Deputy inspector-general imperial Maritime customs, china, (1898-1908) and acting inspector-general of customs with rank of Provincial lieutenant- governor (1908-1910). she spent much of her life in china, marrying charles lauru of Beijing, and she published a number of works on china, including the present work, Peking. A Historical and Intimate
Description of its Chief Places of Interest (shanghai: 1920), Chinese Shadows (Beijing: 1922), and a biography of her uncle, the famous inspector-general of customs in china, sir robert hart Bt — whose abilities and service were so highly regarded by the chinese that ‘his chinese honours excelled in number and distinction those bestowed on any other european’ (DnB) — which was published in 1909. the preface to The Moon Year explains that, ‘this book is an attempt to unravel some of the puzzles of an old, old civilisation which, save in the case of a small minority, has not changed for centuries — to describe the everyday beliefs of the chinese people and the festivals of their “Moon calendar,” used as a diary of daily happenings’ (Preface). Following introductory chapters on ‘the chinese calendar’, ‘the hundred gods’, and ‘imperial ceremonies’, the work devotes a chapter to each of the twelve moons, and concludes with a lengthy bibliography and an index of english and chinese names in the appropriate characters. The Moon Year was well-received on publication, and established itself over the following years as a standard text on subject, which is still widely cited; it was translated into german by richard hoffmann as Das Mondjahr (Berlin: 1952) and the english edition was most recently reprinted by oxford university Press in 1982.
BreDon’s inForMatiVe guiDe to BeiJing in the original eMBroiDereD silK BinDing
54. Bredon, Juliet. Peking. a historical and intimate Description of its chief Places of interest. Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Hankow, and Yokohama: Kelly & Walsh, Limited, 1920.
£1,250
8vo (212 x 136mm). original binding of light-grey Chinese silk over boards with rounded corners, embroidered with a design of pagodas, trees and bridges in coloured silks, patterned yellow endpapers; pp. xv, [1 (errata)], 478, [2 (imprint, verso blank)]; title printed in red and black with vignette of censer, half-tone frontispiece after le Munyon, and 47 half- tone plates after le Munyon, camera craft, et al., 39 printed recto-and-verso, 2 folding plans printed in red and black, one bound to throw clear, 5 folding plans or maps bound to throw clear, wood-engraved headpieces; corners very slightly rubbed and boards very slightly bowed, some folding plans slightly creased or with short marginal tears, one plan cut twice vertically by the binder’s knife, some light marking or toning, nonetheless a very fresh example in the original silk binding.
First edition. the writer Juliet Bredon (c. 1881-1937) was the daughter of sir robert edward Bredon, Bt (1846-1918), Deputy inspector-general imperial Maritime customs, china, (1898-1908) and acting inspector- general of customs with rank of Provincial lieutenant-governor (1908-1910). she spent much of her life in china, marrying charles lauru of Beijing, and she published a number of works on the country, including the present work, Chinese Shadows (Beijing: 1922), The Moon Year. A Record of Chinese Customs and Festivals (shanghai: 1927), and a biography of her uncle, the famous inspector-general of customs in china, sir robert hart Bt — whose abilities and service were so highly regarded by the chinese that ‘his chinese honours excelled in number and distinction those bestowed on any other european’ (DnB) — which was published in 1909.
in her preface, Bredon explains that, ‘several books have been written about Peking by foreigners, but among these only two are comprehensive — Monseigneur Favier’s monumental work Peking and Father hyacinth Bitchurin’s Description of Peking. this paucity of accurate accounts is chiefly due to the obstacles in the way of collecting precise information. the more one studies the fascinating old city, the more one realises the tantalising difficulties of learning, even from the chinese themselves, anything but the merest outline of
its history and
monuments. a proper appreciation of Peking is not, i believe, in the power of a Westerner to give — certainly not of one single person — since it pre-supposes a thorough knowledge of china’s past, an infinite sympathy with chinese character and religions, an intimate sympathy with chinese character and religions, an intimate familiarity with the proverbs and household phrases of the poor, the songs of the streets, the speech of the workshop, no less than the mentality of the literati and the motives of the rulers’ (p. vii). therefore, her book intends to provide a fuller description of the city than a conventional guide-book that will be of interest to the general reader: ‘it aims at nothing original, — is simply a gathering up of the information of others, a gleaning from what has already been given to the world in a far better and fuller but less portable form. its purpose is simply to play the part of a friend to resident and visitor alike — a friend (in whose taste you perhaps have confidence) to take you by the arm for a stroll through the city and its suburbs’ (pp. vii-viii). however, Bredon’s book has subsequently become a very useful source on life in Beijing during the early twentieth century (and especially its architecture), and is widely cited in later literature on the period. this first edition was followed by revised and enlarged second and third editions in 1922 and 1931 respectively.
55.
54
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96