boxer uprising (4 risultati)

First appearance in print of this report by the commander of the Royal Engineers in the China Expeditionary Force, including eight photographic illustrations taken in and around Beijing and two detailed plans showing the defensive state of the city and the British Legation during the summer. The plan of the legation was executed by Lieutenant H. E. C. Cowie of the Royal Engineers, while that of the city was derived from maps prepared by the US Engineers and French and Japanese forces. The illustrations depict Chinese defensive structures, the burnt rear gate of the British Legation, and a hole blown in the wall of the imperial city. Large quarto, pp. 66-9 in the journal. With 2 folding leaves of plates and 2 folding colour plans ("Plan of British Legation Peking"; "Peking: June 20th - August 14th 1900") loosely inserted as issued. Original printed wrappers, wire-stitched as issued. Plate leaves and plans in excellent condition with just a little edge-wear; spine fold splitting along bottom half, light toning: very good.

A juroku musashi board game based on the Boxer Uprising, with pieces decorated with the national flags of the members of the Eight-Nation Alliance. The board is also an advertisement for a company called Suga Kaikado, which sold books, stationery, and trinkets. We have traced no other copies. The centre of the board, where the "parent" begins, is marked as Tianjin, where the Eight-Nation Alliance rescued a besieged population of foreigners on 13-14 July 1900. Each "child" also begins at a battle location, including Beicang, Yangcun, and the Taku Forts. The lower triangle features Peking Castle, Jehol (Rehe), and the International Legations. Juroku musashi developed in the Edo period as a popular board game. One player controls the "parent" piece and the other controls 16 "child" pieces; the goal is for the "parent" to capture at least 10 "children" by jumping over them, or for the "children" to box the "parent" into a corner so it cannot move. The "parent" begins play at the centre of the board and the "children" begin along the edges of the main square. Colour paper game board (261 x 371 mm). With 17 colour card game pieces (each 20 x 20 mm). Text in Japanese. Print bright, a little soiled and nicked at edges, pieces rubbed: a very good copy.

Sole edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Walter Townsend's mother on the front free endpaper, "Mrs Brunker, with love, and most kind remembrances, from Mary A. Townsend Sept. 23 1900". Laid down on the pastedowns are two autograph letters signed to Brunker, one each from mother and son. Walter Townsend was appointed to the British government's China Consular service in 1899 as a student interpreter and arrived in Beijing the same September. When Boxer forces laid siege to the legation quarter in summer 1900, he enrolled in the volunteer corps and received two bullet wounds (one of the plates shows him on crutches). Sent to Yokohama to recuperate following the lifting of the siege, he died of typhoid fever. Townsend became famous for a lengthy letter, written to The Times in June 1900, which was carried in the newspaper's 16 July issue and offered a vivid portrayal of life in Beijing during the uprising. This letter, as well as many Townsend sent to his parents during his time in China, is printed in this volume, alongside laudatory obituaries published in The Times and other newspapers following his death. Following his cremation in Japan, his ashes were returned to England, where the family interred them in Aisthorpe, Lincolnshire, in the grounds of the church. Before his posting abroad, Townsend seemingly lodged with the recipient of this copy in Lincoln and came to know her well. Laid down on the front pastedown is an autograph letter, dated 8 June 1899, in which he thanks her "for all that you have done for me", writes that he must set out for China (via New York) the following morning, and asks that she keep hold of his set of bookshelves. On the rear pastedown is a second autograph letter, written by Mary Townsend (neé Houchen, 1851-1940) to Brunker and dated a couple of weeks after the presentation of this copy, by which point she and her husband have embarked on a voyage back to their home in America. The letter reveals the pain of her son's lost. "My dear Mrs Brunker, I quite intended to say goodbye to you and Lottie before we left, but when the time came I could not make up my mind. Everything about your house reminds me of my dear boy". She thanks Brunker for providing some articles owned by her son and briefly describes the progress of their voyage to America. This scarce book is recorded in only six institutions worldwide: the British Library, National Library of Scotland, Leiden, Harvard, Columbia Redlands, and University of California Berkeley. Octavo. Half-tone frontispiece after a photographic portrait of Walter Townsend, his facsimile inscription below, 3 half-tone plates showing the student interpreters at the British Legation in Beijing and Townsend's grave outside Aisthorpe church; all illustrations with tissue guards. Original tan cloth, front cover lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. Recent ownership signature at head of front free endpaper. Binding worn and foxed, tissue repair at foot of preface, light toning internally, nicks to laid-down autograph letters: very good.

A substantial run of ephemeral newspapers printed by German forces stationed in Beijing after relieving the siege of the international legations. Collections of assorted issues are confined to German institution only. The Germans began publishing their newspaper on Christmas Day 1900 under the name Pekinger Tageblatt, and this issue (given a spurious numbering of "599") opens the collection. Fifty thousand copies were printed at a press symbolically located in the building of the former Zongli Yamen, an department of the Qing government dealing with foreign affairs which was abolished after the Boxer Uprising. The Christmas number reveals much about the makeshift conditions in which this new printing venture germinated. For example, the letters of the decorative banner on the first page - "Weihnachtsausgabe" ("Christmas Number") - are each formed by multiple Chinese characters, and on pages 3 and 4 the typesetters are forced to use a symbol to stand in for the letter "z", likely because they were using a font proportioned for printing in English. Publication continued weekly into 1901 - the name of the paper changed to Pekinger Deutsche Zeitung - and lasted for a further 24 numbers, this collection including all but the last three. The fragile newssheets mix updates on local military action with announcements of regulations, coverage of special events and the visits of dignitaries, cultural titbits, sports news, and advertisements. The supplement to the 27 January 1901 issue announces the death of Queen Victoria, while that for 3 March presents the new timetable for the Beijing-Baoding Railway. Provenance: contemporary ownership signature of one "Bartels" at the head of several sheets, likely Paul Walter Bartels (1872-1911), a military attaché at the German embassy in Beijing until 1907. Folio (435 x 315 mm). Text in German. Contemporary brown pebble-grain quarter cloth, Papier Torniquet sides, pink endpapers, comprising 21 two-sheet issues of "Pekinger Deutsche Zeitung", 4-sheet issue of "Peking Tageblatt", and 4 single-sheet supplements, thin paper, nearly all sheets same size as binding, sheets printed one side only. Old creases, some foxing and toning but text clear, first sheet with portion of text faded (just about legible) and small loss affecting only decoration, second sheet trimmed close at fore edge, couple of old repairs: an exceptionally well preserved collection of fragile material.