Chinese and English Dictionary ; containing all the words in the Chinese Imperial Dictionary, arranged according to the radicals.

Batavia : printed at Parapattan, 1842 – 43. Two volumes in contemporary bindings, half calf over marbled papered boards, flat panelled spines ruled and lettered in gilt, contrasting morocco title labels lettered in gilt, lightly scuffed and a small repaired tear to the spine of second volume, contemporary owner’s name (Dallas) inscribed on title pages in pen, a later owner’s name (Colt) inscribed in pencil to the endpapers, vol. I pp. xxiv; 648; 29; vol. II pp. 649 – 1486; [2 – blanks]; 28, internally clean, a fine set, complete in contemporary bindings.

The second Chinese – English Dictionary, printed on the Protestant lithographic press in Parapattan, Batavia (present-day Jakarta).

The Chinese and English Dictionary, compiled by the English Congregationalist missionary Walter Henry Medhurst (1796–1857), is the second major Chinese–English dictionary after Robert Morrison’s pioneering A Dictionary of the Chinese Language (Macao, 1815 – 1823). Medhurst’s intention was to publish an abridged and cheaper dictionary that still contained all the 47,035 head characters from the imperial Kangxi Dictionary (1716). Whereas Morrison’s Dictionary is a six-volume quarto of over 4000 pages, Medhurst’s more compact effort is complete in two octavo volumes, printed in October 1842 and May 1843. Printed at Medhurst’s own expense in a run of just 600 copies, the set sold for 10 Spanish dollars.

Walter Henry Medhurst (1796-1857), an English Congregational missionary, was one of the first translators of the Bible into Chinese. During 25 years of service with the London Missionary Society in Malacca, Penang and Batavia from 1816 onwards, Medhurst became proficient in several Chinese dialects as well as Malay. In 1842 he was sent to Shanghai, where, with William Lockhart, he founded the London Missionary Society Press.

Very rare.

Cordier, Sinica 1597; Löwendahl 975; Lust 1050