A glance at the interior of China obtained during a journey through the silk and green tea districts. Taken in 1845.

[Shanghae : Printed at the Mission Press, 1849]. [Series: The Chinese miscellany, I]. Octavo, modern half Morocco over marbled papered boards, spine with gilt-lettered title label, text and illustrations printed in Shanghai on Chinese paper, pp [ii – title leaf, with small chip at margin, repaired with Japanese tissue], 192, [9] folding woodcut plates, maps and plans (View of Pih-kan Hill; Ground plan of Tsing-poo; Bird’s eye view of the pagoda at Tsing-poo; Map of Keang-nan province; Map of Che-keang province; Ground plan of Tseih-k’he; Ground plan of Hwuy-chow; View of a bridge at Hwuy-chow; Ground plan of Woo-yuen), [2] non-folding woodcut plates (View of a bridge in Woo-yuen; View of high peaks), 8 full-page woodcut illustrations in the text showing equipment used in silk production; bound without the apology slip; a fine copy, bound without the printed yellow wrappers in a modern binding.

Medhurst’s important record of a journey through the provinces of Zheijang and Jiangsu in 1845, with the rare Shanghai title page.

English Congregational missionary Walter Medhurst (1796-1857) arrived in Shanghai in 1842, soon after the port was opened up to British merchants. He was already proficient in several Chinese dialects, having spent 25 years serving the London Missionary Society in Malacca, Penang and Batavia. In Shanghai he quickly established an outpost of the London Missionary Society and a mission press.

In the Spring of 1845 Medhurst set out from Shanghai on a daring journey which flouted the regulations then in force proscribing movement by westerners. For seven weeks he travelled disguised in Chinese dress, managing to return safely after having observed and experienced much in the ‘silk and green tea districts’. His published account, in addition to providing an accurate and detailed picture of the country, its customs and everyday life of its people, contains valuable information on silk manufacture, including illustrations of the various tools and equipment used in its production.

This work was also issued as The Chinese Miscellany, No. 1, 1849. A remainder of the edition printed at Shanghai was sent to England and re-issued with new title page at London by John Snow in the following year.

Cordier, Sinica, 2117-2118; Löwendahl, China illustrata nova, 1099; Lust 380