Category: China

Album of a Dozen Chinese Watercolors of Colorful Birds on Pith Paper, 19th Century

Price: $1,500.00

Seller ID: 005977

Condition: Good

N.d., circa 1850. 12mo, 16 by 12 cm. Each painting mounted on thin paper and framed with blue strips, as typical of such albums made presumably for the tourist and expatriate market. The paintings have a disarming naive quality. Yet in our view the paintings have more color and detail than the average such album of this size (larger format pictures tend to be more nuanced when it comes to this genre). The silk patterned cover has had its joints repaired. The usual amount of fissures, or tears, to the pith paper. Most of the paintings have no or very light defects of this type.
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Album of a Dozen Chinese Watercolors of Ships and Boats on Pith Paper

Price: $2,000.00

Seller ID: 005511

Binding: Hardcover. Silk pastedown.

Condition: Good

N.d., 19th century. Oblong, 13 by 16.5 cm. Wonderful luminous coloring, with small people, waterfowl and waves represented as well as a wide variety of Chinese boats, from junks and houseboats to impressive galleons. The pith paper has the typical scattered tears, chips and losses. Edge wear, slight tattering and soiling of the silk. Still all the pictorial representations are intact, bright and visually exciting.
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Album of a Dozen Chinese Watercolors on Pith Paper, mostly representing scenes of Chinese punishment

Price: $650.00

Seller ID: 006465

Binding: Cloth

Condition: Very Good

16.5 by 12 cm. Each of the watercolors is framed by mounted cloth strips, as opposed to the more usual paper strips. Ten of the scenes depict various Chinese tortures. One of the other watercolors shows a man sitting at a counter with cards, and two smaller people kneeling in front of his counter. This picture we think is probably depicting gambling. The other watercolor not about punishment is a rendering of a peasant balancing a yoke or carrying pole. The album was surely made for a Western tourist or temporary resident, and the scenes of torture were a popular subject, as well as play...
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Album of a Dozen Chinese Watercolors on Pith Paper, with a miscellany of subjects

Price: $750.00

Seller ID: 006762

Binding: Cloth

Condition: Very Good

N.d., circa 1900. Oblong, 13 by 17.5 cm. With a label on the FEP from the store Sing Fat & Co., which was located in San Francisco. Based on this label, we assume that the album was created on the later end of such albums. These albums were popular souvenirs for visitors and tourists to China, and as evident here, came to be sold in the U.S. itself, not requiring distant travel for the American, who might have perceived the album as a souvenir of Chinatown. Each of the watercolors is framed by mounted cloth strips, as opposed to the more usual paper strips, and there are a variety of col...
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Album of Eight Pith Paintings

Price: $600.00

Publisher: China,

Seller ID: 005431

Binding: Decorative Fabric on Boards, with ribbon ties

Condition: Very Good

N.d., 19th century. 17 by 14 cm. Simple renderings of dignified men and women, all but one a single portrait per page. The portraits are not unified by a theme such as trades or the like. The most exciting image is of a man holding a kite string, with a kite in the shape of an insect. Another shows a man holding a branch in what we believe was a religious rite. There is one image of a man and women who are playing a board game.The cover is chewed along the edges, and the binding is rather loose. Typical chips and tears to the rice paper.
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Album with Eight Original 19th Century Chinese Paintings

Price: $1,500.00

Seller ID: 005860

Binding: Hardcover. Leporello.

Condition: Very Good

N.d., 19th Century. Album, closed, oblong, 30 by 367 cm. The paintings measure 21 by 27 cm. All the paintings have Chinese captions written inconspicuously with a calligraphic hand. The paintings depict two men picking fruit off a tree, a man astride a galloping horse, a Chinese satyr (hairy man upper half, cloven hooved footed), a traveling man and boy, a primitive man with absurdly drooping breasts, a warrior (?) sitting against an animal that looks like a cross between a horse and a big cat, a near nude man sowing seeds, and a group of hunters with bows and arrows. All the paintings ar...
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Box of Seven Chinese Watercolor Cards on Pith Paper Depicting Kites and Children Playing

Price: $450.00

Publisher: China,

Seller ID: 005417

Binding: Decorative Fabric on Boards, with ribbon ties

Condition: Very Good

N.d., 19th century. 11 by 7 cm. Typical chips and tears to the rice paper. Box with glass lid. Fabric siding heavily soiled. Box still very functionable.
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Chinese Erotic Leporello or Pillow Book

Price: $850.00

Publisher: China,

Seller ID: 004573

Binding: Leporello

Condition: Very Good

N.d., 19th century. Closed, 18.5 by 10.5 cm, and 5 cm thick. 18 panels (13 with the pictorial), and so when wide open, stretching to almost 190 cm, depicting lovers in pari delicti. The ladies have bound feet, and they pleasure one another in one three way scene. Adrongyny abounds, as often the case in these leporellos, and a Peeping Tom (here, a woman) and a feline onlooker add a touch of humor to the proceedings. The leporello illustration is continuous and fluid and so can be viewed as itself representing a sort of orgy. All color printed on silk fabric which is pasted onto the heavy...
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Chinese Miao Album of Original Watercolors

Price: $1,250.00

Seller ID: 004981

Binding: Paper.

Condition: Good

19.5 by 14 cm. 12 leaves, including cover, with 20 original paintings (or 20 pages with paintings, as in a few instances, the two facing pages might be interpreted as a single painting). Most of the images are of provincial sorts, and the artist is at times mocking their simplicity and blockheadedness. The style, called Miao, arose in the 18th century and gained popularity among nobles and gentry. One can see in most of the images that the characters have broad features that are not associated with Han Chinese, and the figures are often underdressed, perhaps to suggest an uncouthness. The...
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Leporello of Ten Photos Depicting the Chinese Royal Family and the Dowager Empress Cixi

Price: $150.00

Seller ID: 004519

Binding: Leporello

Condition: Very Good

N.d., circa 1900. Closed, 15.5 by 11.5, and ten panels, so when fully stretched, about 110 cm. The photos are all dark or darkened, and are photos of photos. The leporello was the type created and sold to tourists as a souvenir.
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Oriental Book of Dreams & Horoscopes. The True Secret to Your Success

Price: $35.00

Seller ID: 003930

Binding: Wraps

Condition: Near Fine

Fun Chinese numerology, horoscope and self-help/motivational guide, not to mention strange advertising vehicle. N.d., circa 1920s. Oblong, 5.3 by 9.5 cm. 20 pp., including wraps. Ads for such things as crystal swan electric lamp from the Oriental Importing Company, special indented electric globe for liquid incense and the exotic fragrance of Princess Ming.
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Ten Chinese Gouache Paintings on Pith Paper of Ceremonial, Pedagogical and Domestic Scenes

Price: $4,500.00

Seller ID: 004911

Condition: Very Good

Especially bright pith or rice paper paintings. N.d., circa early to mid-19th century. Oblong, 23 by 33 cm. The paintings are 19 by 28 cm within the blue paper framing. The paintings include one showing religious observance before a shrine, an audience in a nobleman's receiving chamber, a servant bathing a bay while another serves a cup of tea, students studying, a woman breast feeding, an elderly man being carried in a chaise, etc. All the artwork is both simple yet highly detailed and nuanced, and the album is of extraordinary beauty, with the colors rich, deep and luminous. With the ...
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Ten Colorful Intricate Cray Paper Cut-outs of Chinese Masks and Masked Performers

Price: $400.00

Seller ID: 005093

Binding: Envelope

Condition: Fine

No date (that we can discern). From the mid-20th century. The ten cut-outs are highly colorful and visually exciting. Given the thinness and overall nature of the paper they are made of, they are also delicate and fragile, although ours are in mint condition, protected as they are by folded paper. The ten pieces and their protective paper come in an envelope made of thin card stock. Besides a slip with what must be a short exegesis, Chinese characters are written on this windowed envelope as well as the paper guards. The collection was probably sold as a souvenir, probably in conjunctio...
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A Map and History of Peiping With Explanatory Booklet

By: Dorn, Frank

Price: $3,500.00

Publisher: Tientsin-Peiping, Peiyang Press, Ltd. : 1936

Seller ID: 005827

Binding: Wraps (card stock weight). Slipcase of card stoc

Condition: Very Good

A wonderful, uncommon light-hearted and colorful map of Beijing from the tumultuous thirties. The map is chock-a-block with vignettes of sights, animals, human activities and historic scenes associated with various locations within the Imperial Chinese capital. Booklet: 8vo. 18 by 13 cm. 22 pp. Map: 87 by 76 cm. Col. Frank Dorn (1901-1981), later a brigadier general, was an artist, writer, and aide to General Joseph Stilwell, who commanded the American and Chinese Nationalist resistance to Japanese incursions into China and Burma. This copy of the map shows the Nazi flag for the site...
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China. A New History

By: John King Fairbanks

Price: $15.00

Publisher: Cambridge, MA, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press : 1992

Seller ID: 002335

ISBN-13: 9780674116702

Condition: Fine

[Manuscript] A Dissertation upoh Roast Pig

By: Lamb, Charles. Calligrapher: FME or FEM

Price: $4,750.00

Seller ID: 007042

Binding: Quarter Calf

Condition: Very Good

A beautiful illuminated manuscript rendering of Lamb's witty and whimsical classic satiric essay, which pokes fun at the extremes engendered by the quest for gastronomic bliss. The illustrations are done in a faux Chinese style, as befitting the subject matter of the essay. N.p., n.d., 20th century. 4to. 30 by 24 cm. Unpaginated, 16 leaves with content on both sides, other than title and final text leaf, followed by five blank leaves. With 12 watercolored illustrations, most half to nearly full paged, with text written with a calligraphic hand. The artist and calligrapher we should thi...
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Viaggio di Samuele Holmes alla China e in Tartaria Esiguito negli Anni 1792 e 1793 [nella serie intitotita "Raccolta di Viaggi Dopo Quelli di Cook" esequita tanto per mare quanto per terra, e non pubblicati fin ora in lingua italiana]

By: Samuel Holmes.

Price: $225.00

Publisher: Milano, Tipografia Sonzogno e Comp. : 1817

Seller ID: 002311

Binding: Wraps

Condition: Very Good

12mo. (18 by 11 cm.) 276 pp. plus five hand-colored plates. This is the first Italian version of Holmes travels to China and it is actually based on the French translation made by Le Vaillant! The plates are quite interesting and lovely, including one of a barge, one of a pagoda, and another of the audience hall of the Imperial Palace. The leaves have a nice rag content and are thus quite clean, even uncommonly so, compared to most Italian publications of the early nineteenth century. The work is complete as of itself; it is a part of a larger series of travel journals translated into I...
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Chinese Leporello Style Notebook, Mostly Blank, with Matching Outer Slipcase

By: Self-Help Club of the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Schools

Price: $50.00

Publisher: Iaiku, Shansi, China,

Seller ID: 004248

Binding: Leporello. Outer slipcase

Condition: Near Fine

An unusual, and handsome, crafts project creation. N.d., circa 1930s. 17 by 10.5 cm, with 42 pp, all blank except for two pastedowns, one on FEP, stating where and by whom made, and one with a few Chinese characters for the motto of the school and a key to their sound and meaning. With a double tasseled flourish, possibly meant as a bookmark, which is attached to the book via a fabric cord. The outer case has two Chinese characters sewn in. The first fold (on the endpaper) has a closed tear by the hinge. Otherwise, unused condition, with minor age toning to the leaves.
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Chinese Whimsy

By: Street, Aileen

Price: $750.00

Publisher: : 1935

Seller ID: 004847

Binding: Limp Vellum (folded over)

Condition: Fine

4to. 25 by 16 cm. Unpaginated, 21 leaves, or 21 pp. with content. (11 pages with original watercolors, and the balance of pages with calligraphy employed in original verse.) The illustrations are very striking, especially the several of masks. Also striking is a colorful, flamboyantly winged chicken and a pig-faced man. The images are set starkly in the center of the page, with no surrounding decoration, and thus hew to an Oriental minimalism that allows them to leap off the page. The verse is a perfect complement, and the two work together seamlessly, paying homage to an Oriental style...
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Selections from Oriental Objects of Art Collected by Worcester Reed Warner Most of Which Have Been Presented to the Cleveland Museum of Art

By: Warner, Worcester Reed

Price: $600.00

Publisher: Tarrytown, NY, Bartlett Orr Press (Privately printed) : 1921

Seller ID: 003812

Binding: Cloth

Condition: Very Good

Folio. 36 by 26 cm. 135 pp. 54 photographic plates, 16 of which are in color. (The porcelain and jewelry specimens are mostly done in color.) Among the arts treated in this lavish book are pottery and procelain, jades and crystals, bronzes, and stone sculpture. Chinese specimens dominate, followed by Japanese, then Korean. The collector, Worcester Reed Warner (1846-1929), was a trained mechanical engineer, astronomer, entrepreneur and business executive, and a philanthropist. The company he co-founded, Warner & Swazey, manufactured machine tools, but was best known for making astonomi...
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Category: China