Firsts Hong Kong 2024
A selection of 60 items for FIRSTS Hong Kong
Maritime Museum, 6-8 December 2024
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1A palimpsest of stylus scratches: traces of Late Antique handwritingRoman inscribed wooden tablet.Numidia/Byzacena, Roman Empire, early 4th century CE.
InquireA fine example of a Late Antique writing tablet from the Roman province of Byzacena. Originally the recessed panel was filled in with a layer of soft wax into which the writer would inscribe his text with a stylus, often also scratching the wooden ground. As such tablets were used over and over again, traces of many different texts can be found on …
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2The politics of astronomy during the reign of the Yongzheng EmperorCollection of 26 letters and 29 manuscripts sent from Beijing. Bound together …Beijing, 1725-1728.
€ 85,000.00Important collection of letters and manuscripts by Antoine Gaubil, bound in one volume, largely in connection with the first publication of Gaubil's astronomical and other scientific works in China as part of the first volume of the "Observations mathématiques, astronomiques, géographiques, chronologiques et physiques". Most letters and manuscripts …
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![[Silsilat al-tawarik - English]. Ancient Accounts of India and China, by Two Mohammedan Travellers, Who Went to Those Parts in the 9th Century.](https://inlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/img-bn61650-324x324.jpg)
3Arabic travel account from the early Abbasid era, concerning China and India: rare English edition[Silsilat al-tawarik - English]. Ancient Accounts of India and China, by …London, 1733.
€ 28,000.00First English edition of the famous travel report given by the Arab merchant Suleiman al-Tajir, who had visited China and India in the 9th century. His book is the oldest Arabic account of China, written more than 400 years before Marco Polo. This is augmented by the "Silsilat al-Tawarikh" of Abu Zayd al-Hasan al-Shirafi, written in the early 10th …
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4The Jesuit botanist tasked with converting the Qianlong EmperorAutograph document signed. Co-signed by the bishop of Beijing, Polycarpo …Beijing, ca. 1743/44.
€ 3,500.00An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the prominent Jesuit as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or senior friars as witnesses to …
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5A pioneer of botanical research in Vietnam co-signs the renunciation of the Chinese ritesDocument with 3 autograph lines signed.Dong Nai province, 13 May 1744.
InquireAn oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742), taken by the German Jesuit missionary in Cochinchina and Siam, Jacob Graff (1709-73), and co-signed by João de Loureiro. The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence. …
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6A Bohemian Jesuit and mathematician at the Nguyen Court in HueAutograph document signed. Co-signed by the Jesuit provincial of Japan, …Vietnam, 1746-1749.
InquireAn oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the prominent Jesuit as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or senior friars as witnesses to …
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7Joseph-Marie Amiot's arrival in China and the last flowering of Jesuit scholarship at the Beijing courtAutograph document signed.Macau, 27 Aug 1750.
InquireAn oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the prominent Jesuit as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a signed autograph ("manu propria") of the formula had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or superior friars as witnesses …
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8A French China missionary and victim of the French RevolutionAutograph document signed.Macau, 8 Sep 1750.
€ 4,500.00An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the prominent member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a signed autograph ("manu propria") of the formula had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by …
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9A Jesuit missionary from JiangxiAutograph document signed. Co-signed by the bishop of Beijing, Polycarpo …Beijing, 16 Aug 1754.
€ 4,000.00An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the prominent Chinese Jesuit as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a form signed in one's own hand ("manu propria") had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents are co-signed by church officials or senior friars as witnesses …
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10A prominent member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society, later bishopAutograph document signed. Co-signed by Pierre Lacerre, designated Vicar …Macau, 23 Nov 1755.
€ 3,500.00An oath renouncing the practice of the Chinese rites, taken by the prominent member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) and later bishop, as required by the Papal Bull "Ex Quo Singulari" (1742). The oath was sworn on the Bible, and a signed autograph ("manu propria") of the formula had to be produced as evidence. Most of these documents …
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11The Dutch East India Company in the South China SeaManuscript sea chart of the coasts of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam, …Jakarta, 1759.
€ 350,000.00Drawn by hand, and highlighting historical Hong Kong and Guangzhou: the earliest known surviving chart of the region in the hand of Gerrit de Haan, chief mapmaker of the Dutch East India Company. Most likely tailor-made for a Company trading voyage to Canton (today Guangzhou), the map, bearing De Haan's trademark compass rose, would have been copied …
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12A description of Beijing, with six accurate plansDescription de la ville Peking, pour servir à l'intelligence du plan de …Paris, 1765.
€ 18,000.00First edition of a description of Beijing, illustrated with six accurate plans. The French cartographer and astronomer Joseph-Nicolas de L'isle (1688-1768) had been corresponding about Chinese astronomy and geography with Jesuit missionaries for more than 30 years, collecting a vast amount of valuable information. The Jesuit father Patouillet asked …
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![[Pingding Xiyu zhantu]. Suite of engravings representing the military campaigns at the conquest of Jinchuan.](https://inlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/img-bn45759-324x324.jpg)
13First edition: Chinese series of enormous prints celebrating the Emperor's conquests in Sichuan[Pingding Xiyu zhantu]. Suite of engravings representing the military campaigns …Beijing, 1778-1785.
€ 480,000.00Chinese issue, following the Paris printing of 1755-59. The “Battle Copper Prints” are a series of prints from copper engravings dating from the second half of the 18th century. They were commissioned by the Qianlong Emperor of the Qing dynasty, who ruled from 1735 to 1796. They depict his 1772-76 military campaigns, led by General A-Kuei, against …
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14Numerical systems compared: 30 years before the birth of Indo-European studiesAritmetica delle nazioni e divisione del tempo fra l'orientali.Cesena, 1786.
€ 7,500.00First edition thus. A highly interesting work comparing the different numerical systems used by various languages and cultures: Arabic, Hebrew, Persian, North and South American Indian cultures, Chinese, Japanese, Tamil, Coptic, Maori, etc. Separate chapters investigate the European adoption of the Arabic system of numerals. The engraved plate shows …
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![Voyages a Peking, Manille et l'Île de France, fait dans l'intervalle des années 1784 à 1801 [...].](https://inlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/img-bn45594-324x324.jpg)
15First edition of a voyage to China and the Philippines, with 92 engraved illustrations and 6 engraved mapsVoyages a Peking, Manille et l'Île de France, fait dans l'intervalle des …Paris, 1808.
€ 15,000.00First edition of an esteemed and well-illustrated account of China and the Philippines by the French sinologist and lexicographer Chrétien-Louis-Joseph de Guignes. De Guignes lived in China for 17 years, partly as Resident of France in China and consul at Canton. He was attached as interpreter to the Dutch embassy to Beijing (1794-1795), led by …
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16Unknown Beethoven sketchleafAutograph sketchleaf for op. 117, "König Stephan" ("Ungarns erster Wohltäter").Teplitz, 1811.
InquireA densely-used two-sided autograph sketchleaf containing music to opus 117, "König Stephan" or "Ungarns erster Wohltäter" ("Hungary's first Benefactor"), the front showing, among other motifs, the opening cello/bassoon line for the beginning of the first movement chorus, "Ruhend von seinen Thaten" (Andante maestoso e con moto, C major), and the …
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17One of the earliest Chinese texts to be printed in Europe, a landmark in lithographic printingMencius (Chinese).Paris, 1829-1830.
€ 6,500.00The doctrines of the Chinese philosopher Mengzi (fl. 300 BC), the principal successor to Confucius. This is one of the earliest Chinese texts to be printed in Europe and a landmark in lithographic printing. The Chinese text here is complete in two parts. Lasteyrie had produced a Latin translation by Stanislas Julien (1797-1893) in 1824-26 ("Meng …
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18Training Jesuits in Chinese grammarNotitia Linguae Sinicae.Malacca, 1831.
€ 6,500.00First edition. An important Chinese grammar by the Jesuit missionary in China, Joseph Henri de Prémare (1666-1736), and a very early Malacca printing. Prémare served in Guangxi in the early 18th century, having to leave for Guangzhou when the Emperor banned Christianity over the Chinese Rites controversy in 1724. He later went to Macau, where he …
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![Autograph musical manuscript of two short works for piano: "All[egre]tto" (24 bars, in contrasting A major and A minor sections), and "Mazur" (14 bars in D minor), signed ("Ch") twice at the end of each piece.](https://inlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/img-bn53632-324x324.jpg)
19Two short piano works inspired by Polish folk musicAutograph musical manuscript of two short works for piano: "All[egre]tto" …No place, ca. 1832-1833.
€ 240,000.00Two short piano works inspired by Polish folk music. Kobylanska considers that whilst both works are signed by Chopin, they are too unsophisticated to be his own compositions, and are perhaps transcriptions of Polish folk tunes: "Beide Stücke sind zwar mit Ch signiert, in ihrer ganzen Art jedoch zu primitiv, als daß man sie für eigene Kompositionen …
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20Prohibitory regulations against opium, printed in Macao in 1840 - No copy at auction in the last 30 yearsPortfolio Chinensis: or a Collection of Authentic Chinese State Papers …Macau, 1840.
€ 15,000.00Only edition of this remarkable work, uniquely preserving the mostly handwritten edicts promulgated by Commissioner Lin in his attempts to combat the opium use plaguing China in the first decades of the 19th century. The American missionary responsible for collecting and translating these edicts, Jehu Lewis Shuck (1812-63), distanced himself from …
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21Ship log of a journey to SingaporeHMS "Agincourt". Manuscript ship's journal.Chusan, Hong Kong, Singapore and other places, 1844-1845.
€ 9,500.00The log contains detailed daily entries tracking the ship's travels to Asia, including Chusan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Each day's entry provides the ship's bearings, speed, wind direction, and distance travelled, and contains remarks on the ship's maneuvers, signals, and activities. In addition to the necessary constant maintenance plus sail and …
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![[Silsilat al-tawarik]. Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes et les Persans dans l'Inde et à la Chine dans le IXe siècle de l'ère chrétienne; texte Arabe imprimé en 1811 par les soins de feu Langlès [...].](https://inlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/img-bn45600-324x324.jpg)
22Arabic travel account from the early Abbasid era, concerning China and India[Silsilat al-tawarik]. Relation des voyages faits par les Arabes et les …Paris, 1845.
€ 6,500.00First edition in French of two Arabic travels to China and India. The text was translated from the Arabic by the French orientalist and professor Joseph Toussaint Reinaud (1795-1867). The Arabic text was first printed in 1811, under supervision of the French linguist and orientalist Louis-Mathieu Langlès.
The first volume starts with an introduction …
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23The first Chinese vessel ever to sail from Hong Kong to New YorkA Description of the Chinese Junk "Keying".London, 1848.
InquireExhibition catalogue for the Chinese trade junk "Keying", at anchor for visitors against admission in the London Docklands in 1848. Personalised copy of the Swedish visitor Carl Peter Freidenfeldt, with autograph of and stamped by the Mandarin on board, He Sing.
The "Keying", an impressive 3-masted 800-ton sailing ship, was the first Chinese …
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24First printing of the demands of a party not yet existingForderungen der kommunistischen Parthei in Deutschland.Paris, end of March 1848.
€ 180,000.00The "Demands of the Communist Party in Germany": extremely rare first printing, signed in letterpress by the committee of the "Communist League": Karl Marx, Karl Schapper, Andreas Heinrich Bauer, Friedrich Engels, Joseph Moll, and Wilhelm Wolff.
Threatened with deportation from France, Marx and Engels had relocated to Brussels in 1845, where …
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![[Ketay-Nama]. Tercüme-i târih-i nevâdir-i Çin Mâçîn [Translation of the rare history and descriptions of China].](https://inlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/img-bn58412-324x324.jpg)
25The Islamic world's first guide to the Silk Road[Ketay-Nama]. Tercüme-i târih-i nevâdir-i Çin Mâçîn [Translation …Istanbul, 1854 CE = 1270 H.
€ 9,500.00First and only printed edition of one of the earliest Islamic travel accounts of China and the first description of the Silk Road in the Islamic world, predating even Ibn Battuta's Rihla.
The present work, one of the most complete descriptions of Ming Dynasty China in the 16th century, was originally written in Persian in 1516. Completed and …
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26A Hamburg Three-Master in the East China SeaJournal geführt an Bord des Bark Schiffes Anna / Capitain C. Eisenmenger …Printed form: Hamburg, 1869-1872.
€ 6,500.00Diligently kept naval log of a long China voyage on a Hamburg-based ship undertaken soon after the Second Opium War, at the time of the Tianjin Massacre, during the early years of the rule of the Tongzhi Emperor. The Chinese ports of call range from Hong Kong on the South China Sea and Shanghai on the East China Sea to Tianjin (near Beijing) on the …
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27The largest photograph in the world: never seen on the marketLife-size 1871 photograph of the Fra Mauro map of the world.Venice, ca. 1871.
€ 120,000.00A life-sized photograph of the famous world map made around 1450 by Fra Mauro, the greatest medieval map of the world: an astonishing accomplishment of art history, cartography, and photography. In its day one of the largest photos ever made, the "Naya Fra Mauro" belongs to a class of colossal early photographs that includes Eadweard Muybridge's …
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28The definitive edition in the original German, the basis for all later editionsDas kommunistische Manifest. Neue Ausgabe mit einem Vorwort der Verfasser.Leipzig, 1872.
€ 75,000.00The very rare, and definitive, second authorized edition, the first to appear under the now canonical title "Das kommunistische Manifest", with a new preface by the authors that would remain a standard part of the book from this date on. Second in importance only to the original 23-page edition from 1848 (surreptitiously reprinted in 30 pages, with …
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29Signed by MarxAutograph letter signed ("Karl Marx").London, 41 Maitland Park Road, 28 Aug 1878.
€ 220,000.00To "Mess. Longmans & Co", in English: "Sirs, The firm of Faesy and Frick (Vienna) have asked me to forward them through you 2 copies of my book 'Misere de la Philosophie'. Please to inform them that the edition is completely exhausted. I have myself in vain tried to get some copies second hand for a correspondent at St. Petersburgh. Yours obediently …
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30A note from StraussPortrait photograph with autograph musical quotation and inscription signed.Vienna, 5 Mar 1881.
€ 9,500.00"À Madame Convairy amicalement de la part de Johann Strauß". The musical quotation comprises four unidentified bars.
From the Berlin studio of Reichard & Lindner with their printed signet on the backing cardboard.
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31New Year's Day, 1886: Brahms photographed in BratislavaCabinet photograph signed.Vienna, 1 Jan 1886.
€ 18,000.00From the studio of Eduard (Ede) Nepomuk Kozic, Pressburg (then part of Hungary and known locally as Pozsony; now Bratislava, capital of Slovakia). Brahms made frequent visits to the city, performing as a conductor and pianist.
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32The dawn of the computer age, in the form of a bookLivre de prières tissé d'après les enluminures des manuscrits du XIVe …Lyon, 1886.
InquireA technical feat of bookmaking, weaving, and scientific ingenuity. Only approximately fifty - and no more than sixty - copies of this book were produced over two years; each page is entirely woven from silver silk thread, programmed into the Jacquard loom using over 200,000 individual punch cards, making this one of the earliest examples of what …
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33A Bengali disguised as a Tibetan monk: the first edition of Sarat Chandra Das's 1882 account of TibetNarrative of a Journey Round Lake Yamdo (Palti), and in Lhokha, Yarlung, …Calcutta, 1887.
€ 18,000.00Extremely rare first edition - likely printed for official use only, and restricted to just 100 copies - of this remarkable account of the author’s journey around Tibet in 1881/82. Fluent in the Tibetan language and disguised in the robes of a lama, Das was offered unparalleled access to monasteries, cities, and the Tibetan ruling elite - unlike …
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34First authorized English translationManifesto of the Communist Party.London, 1888.
InquireFirst authorized English translation of the Communist Manifesto. Originally published in German in 1848, the "Manifesto of the Communist Party" was in 1850 subjected to a flawed English translation (by Helen Macfarlane) which rendered the famous opening line, "A spectre is haunting Europe", as "A frightful hobgoblin stalks throughout Europe". The …
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35The purchase of Manet's OlympiaAutograph letter signed ("Claude Monet").Giverny, 20 Feb 1890.
InquireTo the painter Jacques-Émile Blanche (1861-1942), concerning the collective purchase of Édouard Manets famous "Olympia". Monet confirms the receipt of 500 francs from Blanche's father, the renowned psychiatrist Anotine Émile Blanche: "Je vous accuse réception de la somme de cinq cents francs, que Monsieur votre père m'a envoyé pour votre souscription …
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36Buried in Marx's grave: Marx's housekeeper, mistress, and mother of his only happy childAutograph letter signed ("F. Engels").London, 12 Nov 1890.
€ 240,000.00To Adolf Riefer in Sarrebourg, Lorraine, announcing the death of Riefer's aunt Helene Demuth, who had long served as housekeeper to Marx and Engels: "Ich habe Ihnen heute die traurige Mittheilung zu machen, daß meine langjährige Freundin & seit sieben Jahren Hausgenossin, Ihre Tante Fräulein Helene Demuth am 4. des Mts. nach kurzer Krankheit …
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37Bower's secret reconnaissance mission into Tibet: an outstanding copy of a fabled rarityDiary of a Journey Across Tibet.Calcutta, 1893.
€ 25,000.00An outstanding rarity of Tibetan exploration: the first edition - limited to 150 copies for official government use, “not for sale” - of Bower’s expedition across the Tibetan plateau in 1891, in fact a secret reconnaissance mission for the possible British invasion of the country. A revised edition for public consumption was released in the …
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38"I was wrong not to die last year": Gauguin's financial hardshipsAutograph letter signed ("Paul Gauguin").Tahiti, August 1897.
€ 35,000.00To his friend and patron, the painter and art collector Daniel de Monfreid (1856-1929), concerning Gauguin's friend, the ship's doctor Joseph Gouzer (1854-1901), and his dire financial situation. Gauguin reports that he had received a "charming letter" from Gouzer who was "completely enthusiastic about Daniel [Monfreid], a talented painter and independent …
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39"I immediately corrected the proofs, rendered absurd not by your protests but my typist"Autograph letter signed.No place, "Mercredi soir", 8 May ? 1905.
€ 15,000.00To Gabriel Mourey, about his translation of Ruskin's "Treasures of the Kings" and his love of flowers thwarted by asthma. The letter refers to the proofs of the last part of his translation of John Ruskin's "Treasures" published on 15 May 1905 in the magazine "Les Arts de la Vie", edited by Mourey. Proust thanks him for having "taken the trouble …
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40Shanghai at the turn of the centuryPhotograph album.Shanghai, Huangpu River, Moganshan, Hangzhou, ca. 1900.
€ 18,000.00A photograph album comprising 167 images of the life of a German merchant family in China around the turn of the century. Includes several views of the interior of the Schröders' art-deco residence in Shanghai and of their Chinese domestic workers dressed in late Qing costumes with house puppies and pet monkey, with several portraits of Schröder's …
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411910s China in photographsPhotograph album.China, 1910-1917.
€ 15,000.00A remarkable collection of photographs showing China during the 1910s, the vast majority captioned in English. They include Shanghai, the Yangtze River, life outside Shanghai, Hong Kong, the River Canton, the canal between Shameen and Canton City, Canton, the five-storey pagodas and graveyards outside the Canton walls, Cheefo, Wei-hai-Wei, old Taku …
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42Shanghai in the early 20th centuryPhotograph album.Shanghai, early 20th century.
€ 17,500.00A photograph album comprising 111 personal photographs of Shanghai, including several images of battleships, various English-language shop signs for local businesses (such as "Hsing Loong Carpenter Mason and Painter"), and 12 photographs showing the burial procession of the mother of Shanghai businessman Pau Ching Po. Also, there are several photographs …
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43Rare letter in GermanAutograph letter signed ("N. Lenin").Paris, 1 Nov 1911.
€ 280,000.00Rare, important letter in German, signed with the pseudonym "N. Lenin", addressed to Anton Nemec in Prague, the leader of the Czech Social Democrats, about organising the 6th All-Russian Conference of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP). Held in Prague in 1912, the conference would see the de-facto formation of the Communist Party …
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44"The people in China are getting ready for something"Autograph letter signed ("Yours very sincerely / Sun Yat Sen").Reinanzaka Tokyo, 17 Mar 1914.
€ 180,000.00To "my Dear Mrs. Cantlie", expressing his thanks for the many letters which "brought me much comfort and happiness", and giving news that his former Private Secretary and later editor of the China Republican, "Mr. Fraser", who had previously "abandoned the idea of working for the cause", considering it a lost one, had after all left for England from …
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45Schiele's financial situationAutograph letter signed.No place, 7 May 1914.
€ 15,000.00Unpublished letter to the Viennese lawyer Jakob Scheu concerning the payment of a debt to the tailor Rudolf Holub: "It is quite impossible for me at the moment to pay the whole debt of 247 K to Mr. Holub; however, the week after next I will be able to pay a part, and I hope to pay the balance in the course of the month" (transl.).
Although …
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46"The painter is not quite the artist - it is the spirit that created art"Zeichnungen - Egon Schiele: 12 Blätter in Originalgrösse.Vienna, 1917.
€ 225,000.00The only set of reproductions of Schiele drawings issued during the artist's lifetime and under his supervision: an unnumbered proof copy inscribed by the 26-year-old Schiele to his 24-year-old wife Edith (née Harms) and signed with his monogram. The inscription reads: "Der Maler ist noch nicht der Künstler, - / Es ist der Geist der Kunst geschaffen …
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47Klimt's women: numbered copyFünfundzwanzig Handzeichnungen.Vienna, 1919.
InquireNumber 434 of only 500 numbered and 10 deluxe copies. The twenty-five monochrome and coloured drawings show women in mainly erotic scenes. All were from the collection of the Austrian industrialist August Lederer and his wife Serena (a relative of the U.S. journalist Joseph Pulitzer), who together spent a fortune on compiling the most important Klimt …
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48Gandhi in RomeAlbum leaf signed.Rome, 12 Dec 1931.
InquireOn his return home to India, from a conference in London, he met with Benito Mussolini on this date.
From the estate of the late Franz-Peter Bach of Wolfsburg, an avid autograph collector of many years. Bach began collecting in the 1980s, following music tours in Germany as well as attending swap meets in Hanover, where he would not only exchange …
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49"I actively dislike all the non-combatants and camp followers of the arts"Autograph letter signed.Key West, FL, 31 January 1933.
InquireTo Arnold Gingrich in New York, following their chance first meeting at House of Books. While in New York, Hemingway had met Gingrich on the 20th of January at House of Books, run by Capt. Louis Henry Cohn. Hemingway had gone there to discuss a limited edition of his story "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen", which Cohn was to publish in April. Quite …
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50Stalin to his daughterAutograph letter signed.No place, 4 Mar 1937.
€ 65,000.00A humorous correspondence with his daughter Svetlana, giving her the desired permission to invite two classmates for the weekend: "For Secretary Number 1 Mr Stalin / Decree Number 2 / I order you to permit me to invite two boys and a girl from my class this weekend (12/3/37). / Insurgent - Svetlanka Stalina [stamp] / Signed / I submit myself / Secretary …
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51Original typescript of Hesse's well-known fairy tale"Piktor's Verwandlungen. Ein Märchen von H. H.". Typescript, signed with …Presumably Montagnola, ca. 1940/45.
€ 28,000.00Written in 1922 for his second wife Ruth Wenger, the fairy tale was published as a facsimile in 1954. Hesse himself wrote in his afterword to this edition: "Until today it was only available as a manuscript. I copied it many times in earlier years and painted little pictures for it, somewhat different ones each time [...]".
According to Hesse's …
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52"I have not heard from Messrs. Harrer and Aufschnaiter for some five months"7 letters signed (6 autograph and 1 typed) and 2 autograph lettercards …Stockholm, 1947-1950.
€ 6,500.00To Else Wegener (1892-1992), the widow of the polar explorer Alfred Wegener (1880-1930) and mother-in-law of the mountaineer and explorer Heinrich Harrer, then still stuck in Tibet. Most of Hedin's correspondence concerns Harrer's whereabouts and situation, Wegener's problems in the post-war years, and material support extended by Hedin: "Von Herren …
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53To Viktor PalfiTyped letter signed ("A. Einstein").Princeton, NJ, 20 Aug 1949.
€ 8,500.00To the Berlin-born film editor Viktor Palfi, the son of the long-time director of the Kurfürstenoper and brother of the German-American photographer Marion Palfi, who contacted him with a request from the actor Curt Bois, who wanted to return to Europe from from his American exile: "I understand very well what Mr Bois wants, but I do not see what …
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54Reminiscences of his meeting with FreudAutograph manuscript signed.Neuilly-sur-Seine, 1950.
€ 25,000.00Extensive draft of a letter or article on Dali's masterpiece "Madonna of Port Lligat" (1950), an immense painting about to be displayed at its début exhibition at the Carstairs Gallery in New York, a work he claims to bring the surrealist experience of his own life in line with classical painting: "Ma madona que enfin fini, va être exposé pour …
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55The first visit to China by a Pakistani Prime Minister: signed by Mao and SuhrawardyAlbum leaf signed, together with the signature of Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy …Beijing, 19 Oct. 1956.
€ 125,000.00The signatures of the heads of state of China and Pakistan, together on a single sheet, written on the occasion of the first visit to China by a Pakistani Prime Minister. Suhrawardy had taken office only a month earlier.
During this historic visit, the delegations discussed matters such as the exchange of goods (coal for cotton) and industrial …
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56"To aid research workers faced with problems of interpreting current information on Communist China"China. Provisional Atlas of Communist Administrative Units. CIA/RR GR 59-20.Washington, DC, 1959.
€ 8,500.00Rare CIA-produced atlas of the People's Republic a decade after the "loss of China", at the onset of the country's "Great Leap Forward". It was designed to provide U.S. analysts with "fuller information on Communist adminstrative units" and to aid their interpretation of data emanating from the PRC, of "its statistical reporting, and the complexity …
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57Mao signs an invitation to a Buffet PartyAutograph dedication signed.Beijing, 1960.
€ 185,000.00A fine signature obtained during a 1960 Buffet Party in honour of Latin American communists, held at Beijing's Xinqiao Hotel and attended by Mao Zedong. The China-Latin America Friendship Association, who hosted the venue, was established in Beijing earlier that same year, in March 1960, and soon became the general fortress of cultural infiltration …
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58Rare calligraphic inscriptionAutograph inscription signed in: Mao Zedong, "Oeuvres choisies de Mao Tse-Toung. …Beijing, 1962.
€ 500,000.00First French edition, containing an extremely rare calligraphic inscription, brush-written by Mao Zedong in 1965 shortly before the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, to the foreign diplomat Charles Meyer (1923-2004).
The French national Meyer spent 25 years in Indochina, including 15 years in Cambodia during the 1950s and 1960s, serving …
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![[Diary of a Chinese opera troupe member].](https://inlibris.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/img-bn54726-324x324.jpg)
59Opera, theatre, and the Cultural Revolution[Diary of a Chinese opera troupe member].China, 1964-1965.
€ 4,500.00The diary witness of the earliest moments of the Chinese Cultural Revolution, which can trace its beginnings to reforms aimed at traditional Chinese opera and theatre. Following events from 1964-65, the diary was penned by an as-yet unidentified author deeply involved in opera as a member of a theatre troupe, and possibly as a student or teacher …
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60Mick Jagger's Cologne set listAutograph document (unsigned).Cologne, 2 June 1976.
InquireAn original Rolling Stones set list for a concert on the 1976 European Tour, dated by the collector for the 2nd of June in Cologne. Nineteen song titles written in blue felt pen, written in Mick Jagger's distinctive hand in all caps.
From the estate of the late Franz-Peter Bach of Wolfsburg, an avid autograph collector of many years. Bach began …