Spanning about 350 years from the late l6th century , the latest impressive list from Douglas Stewart Fine Books , Melbourne, includes many recent acquisitions and comprises accounts by European voyagers and missionaries, dictionaries , works on history , politics , religion, philosophy and literature, two letters by famous explorers and several l9th and 20th century printings.
One of those items, $550, is the above circa l920 London China Inland Mission wooden collection box, thought to have been in use up untill the l960s, with chromolithographic labels on three sides and labels for the Young People's Branch of the CIM, money from which was designed to win boys and girls over to Christ in China.
The China Inland Mission was founded in 1865 by James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), a British missionary who worked in China for over half a century. It was a non-denominational organisation that welcomed missionaries from all Protestant groups, including single women.
In its first few decades the CIM campaigned vigorously against the opium trade, ensuring Taylor’s reputation as one of the most influential Europeans to visit China in the l9th century.
A rare 1862 Chinese and English instructor by Ting-ku Tong (1832-1892) , consisting of six volumes bound in wooden panels, said to be one of the most important 19th century publications on Chinese Pidgin English , is for sale at $16,000.
The author is described as the most important comprador associated with the Jardine trading business during the 1860s, Chief Officer of China Merchants during 1873-1884. The book was designed for residents of Canton to be able to converse about commercial matters with westerners who spoke English. It also served as a vehicle for westerners to learn Chinese.
The list includes other rare offerings ranging in price up to $90,000-Histoire de la Navigation de Jean Hugues de Linschot, Hollandois aux des Indes Orientales .
Inschot was born in Delft in 1563. Between 1583 and 1589 he travelled to Goa, where he was employed as a clerk, and in 1594-95 he accompanied Barents on his second voyage to the Kara Sea.
His work– first published in Dutch in Amsterdam, 1595-1596 – draws from Portuguese, Dutch and Spanish sources, although it is also based to some extent on his own experiences. Not subject to the strict censorship that would have been accorded to Spanish or Portuguese publications, it contains accounts full of practical intelligence on both the West and East Indies, and in particular of Goa.
The above partial set of Historia general de Philipinas by Juan de la Concepcion (1724-1787), priced at $18,000, said to be the best and most exclusive history of the Philippines ever written. There is reference to Spanish possessions in that country and to their Spanish-American territory. It also chronicles the work of the Augustinian Monks and their important missions in China and Japan .
(China. Philippines.Exploration.)
