Péking : histoire et description.

Peking [Beijing] : Imprimerie des Lazaristes au Pé-T’ang, 1897. First edition, deluxe issue (with 10 coloured plates). Folio (255 x 355 mm), two volumes in one, contemporary three-quarter morocco over marbled papered boards, spine in compartments with gilt decoration and lettering; marbled pastedowns and endpapers, each pastedown with a mounted original watercolour (one of flowers, the other a landscape) by a fully contemporary Chinese artist; original owner’s inscription to blank facing main title: ‘Corps expéditionnaire français de Chine, 1900. Arthur de Villeneuve,  […] de l’hôpital militaire français, Tientsin’; pp. xii, [4], 336, [4], 337-562 [i.e. 552], [2]; each of the two parts with a separate frontispiece and title; a total of 10 hand-coloured engraved plates including the limitation page which is numbered ‘509’ (of 1000?), plus a total of 124 photolithographs and 24 collotypes on plates with tissue guards intact, and 660 wood-engraved illustrations in the text; the original wrappers and spine are bound in; edges of the leaves a little browned, but an exceptionally fine example of a spectacularly illustrated and produced tome, with an interesting provenance.

The desirable deluxe issue of the first edition of this work by Lazarist missionary Alphonse Favier (1837-1905), who would be appointed Vicar Apostolic of Northern Chihli not long after his book was published in 1897. Locally produced, it is a major primary source on Peking (Beijing) in the last years of the nineteenth century. At the time the book appeared, Favier had already spent 35 years in China, much of it in Peking, so the information it contains is reliably accurate. Furthermore, Favier had practiced as an architect before joining the Lazarists, which means that his descriptions of civic buildings, temples and churches, and monuments and gardens all contain the level of detail that only a trained eye would be likely to observe.

The work is divided into two parts. The first is devoted to the history of Peking, including its topography, myths and legends associated with the city, and the metropolis under successive periods of dynastic rule, as well as a lengthy account of Christianity in China and the various missionary orders active there. The second provides an extensive description of every imaginable aspect of the physical appearance of the city. A large number of the many photographic plates illustrate unique views of the city as it appeared in the mid 1890s.

Favier’s book proved popular, and was republished in France in 1900 and 1902.

Cordier, Sinica, 218 (noting some deluxe examples are known which have 10 coloured plates)

Provenance: The original owner of the present copy, Arthur de Villeneuve, was a member of the Corps expéditionnaire français in China, which was formed in 1900 as an interventionary force during the Boxer Rebellion. Villeneuve was attached to the well-established French military hospital in Tientsin (Tianjin), which was used by the various international expeditionary forces. This facility, along with the broader French concession, served as a critical medical and logistical base during the siege and relief of Peking.