chinese railways (5 risultati)

Soft cover. Condizione: Good. 8vo, decorated wrappers, different image front and back, bit rubbed,SPINE TAPED WITH MATCHING BROWN TAPE.110pp., many b&w photos & a number of fold-out charts.a good copy.(VVbrm1/2.

First edition, number 425 of an unknown number of copies classified "secret", of this publication listing passenger and freight trains running into and within the region of Guangzhou, including along the country's north-south trunk railway. Given the city's proximity to Hong Kong, timetables and train information were regarded as particularly sensitive during the Mao period. The guide opens with a list of train serial numbers and two maps of distances and turnaround points, followed by tables of speed limits, long-term speed restrictions, and water filling points. The timetables are split into several sections, each opening, as normal for the time, with quotes from Mao. Tipped to the first page is a slip, here unused, to track the circulation of this copy among organizations and cadres. Octavo. Diagrams and tables throughout. Text in Chinese. Original illustrated card wrappers, front cover lettered in black and white. Couple of contemporary ink corrections in text. Vertical crease and some offsetting on rear wrapper, hint of spotting: near-fine.

First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the author at the head of the title page, "Monsieur Eloi Béral, with the Author's Compliments." This desirable work includes a 22-page discussion of the construction and opening of the Shanghai-Woosung railway and eight photographs showing construction in progress, the engine (Pioneer), the crowd for Pioneer's first journey, Woosung station, and the engine and carriage sheds at Shanghai. In the early 1870s, Richard Rapier (1836-1897), of the engineering company Ransomes & Rapier, began exploring the possibility of introducing railways into China. Co-operating with Jardine, Matheson, he arranged for a team of six British engineers, led by Gabriel James Morrison, to Shanghai to oversee construction of a line nine miles in length and stretching from Shanghai's American Concession to the mouth of the Huangpu river. An engineering feat, it required 15 bridges and 20 culverts to traverse creeks and watercourses. The first journey, along three-quarters of a mile of completed track, was made on 14 February 1876 by Pioneer, a 1,300-kilogram saddletank specially designed for use in China by Ransomes & Rapier. Over the next few months, the remaining line was put in place to link the two terminals, and page 103 reproduces China's first ever railway timetable advertising services to run after 3 July 1876. New engines and carriages were shipped to Shanghai to extend the service, but it stopped abruptly in autumn 1877 as Chinese official support waned. The short-term success of the historic Shanghai-Woosung line set the stage for an explosion in railway construction later in the 19th century. The recipient (1838-1908) was a French engineer and politician. His library label is on the first blank. Large octavo. With 8 Woodburytypes, laid down on captioned leaves as issued, showing the opening of the Shanghai-Woosung railway; 9 folding tables, woodcuts and tables in text. Original red cloth over bevelled boards, recently rebacked with red cloth, spine lettered in gilt to style, front cover lettered in gilt and with gilt vignette and black double-rule frame, similar frame on rear cover in blind, yellow coated endpapers, edges gilt. Boards with some toning and silverfishing, light foxing internally, original photographs well preserved: a very good copy.

First edition, first printing, of this attractively illustrated guidebook. Encompassing key commercial and cultural centres, the contents drum up business among foreign tourists looking to venture beyond the confines of the treaty ports. This guide is valued also for its impressive eight-panel photographic panorama of the Great Wall. Octavo. Large green half-tone panorama of Great Wall, folding colour map of rail connections in East Asia; half-tones in text. Original pictorial card wrappers, tan cloth backstrip, front cover lettered in red. Brown shadow from former label on first page. Light rubbing and creasing to wrappers, contents clean: a near-fine copy.

Rare commemorative album, in a stunning binding evoking the authority of the Qing emperor, celebrating the completion of the Peking to Hankow railroad, China's first long-distance railway line. We have traced five copies, including three institutionally and two appearing at auction in 2017. The Peking to Hankow railway was built as a co-operative venture between the Imperial Chinese Railway Company and the Belgian China Railway Survey Company. Although several small lines were constructed in China beginning in the 1870s, following China's defeat in the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing court realized the importance of long-distance rail connections to economic and social modernization. On 28 October 1896, an imperial edict ordered the construction of China's first major railway line from the capital to the merchant city of Hankow. The German engineer Heinrich Hildebrand was engaged to survey the 1500-mile route, and in June 1898 the contract was awarded to a Belgian syndicate, with bonds worth 112 million Francs issued to French investors to raise the necessary finance. Construction began at both ends of the line and progressed at a rate of 500 metres per day. The first trains began to run on sections of the track in 1901, and in 1902 the Empress Dowager Cixi made her triumphant return to the capital using part of the line. Four years later, construction was finally completed. An engineering triumph, the project laid the foundations for the growth of the Chinese economy in the early twentieth century. This album is a distinctive pairing of Qing imperial iconography and Westernized presentation. The gilt and white metal decorations reference the Azure Dragon, the emblem of the Manchu emperors and the centrepiece of the Yellow Dragon Flag, the first national flag of China. The use of saffron was an exclusive preserve of the imperial court and therefore a fitting choice for the portfolio's silk covers. Inside, the 50 detailed, expertly composed photographs celebrate the achievements of Qing power and Western technology. They include views of major landmarks including iron bridges at Lugouqiao and Beihe, intermediary stations such as Baoding and Changde, tunnels, and several perspectives of the new Peking terminus in front of the Qianmen gate. The photographs also show the imported locomotives and cars operating along the line. Institutional copies: Musee Royal de Mariemont; National Museum of China; University of Mons. Auction sales: Christie's; Morel de Westgaver. Landscape folio (375 x 531 mm). 29 stiff card and 2 paper leaves mounted on yellow silk stubs in nickel-plated post binder, first and last leaf faced with cream moiré silk, edges gilt. With 50 original albumen prints (262 x 340 mm), printed title page. Housed in a black full diced roan portfolio, spine tooled with imperial Azure Dragon and art nouveau decoration in gilt, front and back covered with padded saffron moiré silk, front with white metal Azure Dragon central plaque and cornerpieces with dragons on Chinese fretwork plaques, board edges and turn-ins gilt-tooled, cream moiré silk doublures. Housed in a custom black chemise and carrying case. Portfolio bright, light wear to padded silk and tips, red marking to bottom right of front cover, rear cover slightly soiled, damp staining and tidemarks to cream silk, binding study, light foxing and staining to card mounts, photographs well-preserved, a few minor instances of skinning along bottom edges, a little silver mirroring and pigmentation. A very good example indeed.