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BLACK (JOHN REDDIE, editor) The Far East. A Monthly Journal, Illustrated with Photographs... New Series, vol. 1-2 only, [Shanghai, for the Proprietor at the "Far East" Printing Office, July 1876-June 1877] image 1
BLACK (JOHN REDDIE, editor) The Far East. A Monthly Journal, Illustrated with Photographs... New Series, vol. 1-2 only, [Shanghai, for the Proprietor at the "Far East" Printing Office, July 1876-June 1877] image 2
BLACK (JOHN REDDIE, editor) The Far East. A Monthly Journal, Illustrated with Photographs... New Series, vol. 1-2 only, [Shanghai, for the Proprietor at the "Far East" Printing Office, July 1876-June 1877] image 3
BLACK (JOHN REDDIE, editor) The Far East. A Monthly Journal, Illustrated with Photographs... New Series, vol. 1-2 only, [Shanghai, for the Proprietor at the "Far East" Printing Office, July 1876-June 1877] image 4
BLACK (JOHN REDDIE, editor) The Far East. A Monthly Journal, Illustrated with Photographs... New Series, vol. 1-2 only, [Shanghai, for the Proprietor at the "Far East" Printing Office, July 1876-June 1877] image 5
BLACK (JOHN REDDIE, editor) The Far East. A Monthly Journal, Illustrated with Photographs... New Series, vol. 1-2 only, [Shanghai, for the Proprietor at the "Far East" Printing Office, July 1876-June 1877] image 6
Lot 49

BLACK (JOHN REDDIE, editor)
The Far East. A Monthly Journal, Illustrated with Photographs... New Series, vol. 1-2 only, [Shanghai, for the Proprietor at the "Far East" Printing Office, July 1876-June 1877]

7 – 15 July 2025, 12:00 BST
Online, London, Knightsbridge

Sold for £7,680 inc. premium

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BLACK (JOHN REDDIE, editor)

The Far East. A Monthly Journal, Illustrated with Photographs... New Series, vol. 1-2 only, 82 albumen prints mounted as issued (recto only) on 75 sheets with printed borders and captions, images typically 140 x 200mm., 14 smaller mounted 2 per page, with contents pages and text (but not title-pages), contemporary half calf over cloth, gilt morocco title label ("The Far East") on spines, worn, one cover detached and small loss to spine of volume 2, 4to (286 x 210mm.), [Shanghai, for the Proprietor at the "Far East" Printing Office, July 1876-June 1877]

Footnotes

RARE PERIODICAL, INCLUDING APPROXIMATELY 55 ALBUMEN PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA.

The Far East was launched in 1870 by the photographer and journalist John Reddie Black (1826-1880). The first series was issued whilst Black was living in Yokohama, and included no images of China. However in 1876 Black moved to Shanghai, publishing this New Series, which was to include "a clear majority of Chinese photographs..." (Terry Bennett, History of Photography in China. Western Photographers 1861-1879, 2010). Bennett notes that in addition to photographs by Black himself "principal amongst the contributors to the new series were William Saunders, Lorenzo F. Fisher, Thomas Child and St. Julian Edwards. The only Chinese photographer mentioned by name is Kung Tai of Shanghai"

Chinese subjects include Shanghai (c.25, including temples, shops, custom house, race course, Bank, "Dwellings of the Poor", Longhua Pagoda, French missionary buildings at Xujiahui/Sikacwi, etc.), and local persons or types ("Shanghai Merchant's Wife", "Chinese Wheelbarrow", "Itinerant Cobbler", "Coolies Waiting for Employment", "Chinese Bride and Bridegroom", "Chinese Actors", "His Excellency Li Hung-chang", "The Cangue", etc.), and miscellaneous (feet binding, example of calligraphy by the Empress).

Other images include 12 portraits of Europeans based in China (including Lord Medhurst, and Robert Hart); Japan (c.14, including views of Nagasaki and Tokyo, theatre and actors).

Provenance: Albert W. Grevatt, master mariner lost at sea in 1884, ownership stamp on front free endpaper; by family descent to present owner.

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