RARE EARLY ALBUMEN PRINT PHOTOS OF CHINA, INCLUDING AERIAL SHOTS TAKEN BY FRENCH BALLOONISTS.
98 photographs, silver prints, varying in size from 2 ½ by 3 ½ to 4 by 5 inches, featuring images of Peking, Shanghai, and Tianjin during the era of the Boxer Rebellion, including aerial shots taken from a balloon, plus city views, portraits of native Chinese, images of the French army marching, and the balloon itself, all laid down to leaves of 8 ½ by 6 ½ inch album, annotations below nearly every image in French, some fading and oxidation to images, album leaves toned and soiled from adhesive, block separated from spine and upper cover.

Remarkable album prepared by a Captain Curtet of the French Corps expeditionnaire de Chine, whose picture adorns the inside cover. From 1899 to 1901 the Boxer Rebellion, an anti-foreign, anti-imperialist, peasant-based movement, raged. The Boxers targeted Chinese Christians and missionaries, killing tens of thousands before the rebellion ended. Several foreign countries, including France, England, Russia, America, and Germany among them, sent military forces to quell the violence.
Captain Curtet arrived in China in 1900 apparently with access to a French military balloon and with a passion for photography. Present in this album are six rare aerial views of China, 1900-1901, possibly the first aerial views of China, including views of the Peking Rotunda, Shanghai, Tianjin port (3), and Curtet’s military quarters. Non-aerial photography includes images of Peking streets, the Summer Palace, the City Wall in Tianjin, two shots of a beheading (just before and just after), a Peking cathedral, Chinese women in native dress, fishing boats in Tianjin, French soldiers at Tienjin and boarding a ship departing for Marseille, a Chinese barber at work, the Imperial Garden, the Imperial Palace, and street acrobats, among others.
See illustrations.