Sir George Staunton

STAUNTON, Sir George Leonard (1737-1801): An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China...with notices of several places where they stopped in their way out and home...Taken chiefly from the papers of...the Earl of Macartney... Sir Erasmus Gower...and of other gentlemen in the several departments of the Embassy,

London: W.Bulmer & Co. for G.Nicol, text: 1797; atlas: [no date, but 1798]. 3 volumes (text: 2 vols, quarto [12 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches], atlas vol.: large folio [22 1/8 x 16 1/2 inches.)] Text: 2 engraved portrait frontispieces, of Emperor Tchien Lung in vol.I and the Earl Macartney in vol.II, 1 plate, 26 vignette illustrations after William Alexander and others. Atlas: 44 engraved views, plans, plates, charts or maps (including a large folding world map, 3 natural history subjects and 25 views). Text: contemporary mottled calf, expertly rebacked to style, the flat spines divided into six compartments by gilt fillets and a roll tool, red morocco lettering-piece in the second compartment, black morocco lettering-piece in the fourth, the other compartments with a repeat decorative design composed from various small floral and foliage tools. Atlas: expertly bound to style in half mottled calf over contemporary marbled paper-covered boards, the flat spine tooled in gilt to match the text. First edition, with the rare large paper issue the text, of the official published account of the first British embassy to China, headed by the Earl Macartney. George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney (1737-1806) was dispatched to Beijing in 1792 traveling via Madeira, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope and Indonesia. He was accompanied by Staunton, and a retinue of suitably impressive size, including Staunton's 11-year-old son who was nominally the ambassador's page. On the embassy's arrival in China it emerged that the 11-year-old was the only European member of the embassy able to speak Mandarin, and thus the only one able to converse with the Emperor. The embassy, the first such to China, had two objectives: the first to register with the Emperor British displeasure at the treatment that the British merchants were receiving from the Chinese, the second to gain permission for a British minister to be resident in China. The first objective was achieved, the second was not. Macartney was twice granted an audience with the Emperor and in December 1793 he was sumptuously entertained by the Chinese viceroy in Canton, and returned to England via Macao and St. Helena, arriving in September 1794. Although the maps and plates were prepared for publication by G. Nicol in London in 1796, they were not issued until 1798, and thus the atlas is not always found with the text volumes. Staunton's son, Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781-1859) "accompanied him to China, remained in Canton until 1817, and was a member of Lord Amherst's second British embassy to Peking in 1816 and 1817 ... [he was also] a founder of the Royal Asiatic Society in 1816 and 1817" (Hill p.579). Both Lowndes and Brunet note the existence of the large paper issue of the two text volumes of this important work, but this seems to have been overlooked by subsequent bibliographies. A close comparison of the present set and an uncut set of the regular issue in original boards shows a number of obvious differences. The uncut height of the regular issue is 12 inches (the present large paper issue is cut and 12 11/16 inches tall), the inner blank margins of the text leaves are, on average, a half inch narrower than the same pages in the large paper issue (demonstrating that the text was printed from the same setting of the type but in two different forms), the regular issue is on wove paper watermarked "I. Taylor / 1796" whilst the large paper issue is on wove watermarked "1795" with no paper manufacturer's name. Brunet V, 525; Cordier Sinica 2381-2382; Cox I, p.344; Hill (2004) 1628; Lust 545 & 547; Morrison I, 696-697; Stafleu & Cowan 12835

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Barrow, John: Sketch of a Journey from Zhe-Hol in Tartary by land to Pekin and from thence by water to Hang-Tchoo-Foo in China, Published by George Nicol , London , April 12th 1796
, single fold and page join reinforced at rear, small slight superficial scuff or thinning of paper near centre, no print affected, edges untrimmed, otherwise map in near fine condition

Engraved by B.Baker , 63 by 45 cms engraved map printed on 81 x 58 cms page, approximately 30 miles to the inch, disbound from Sir George Staunton's An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China Barrow, John, Sketch of a Journey from Zhe-Hol in Tartary by land to Pekin and from thence by water to Hang-Tchoo-Foo in China, Engraved by B.Baker, map China Asia Lord Macartney Sir George Staunton's An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Gr 63 x 45 cms Map First Edition

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Staunton, George Thomas, Sir, 1781-1859,Barrow, John, 1808-1898,Barrow, John, Sir, 1764-1848,Trimen, Andrew: Memoirs of the chief incidents of the public life of Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart., hon. D.C.L. of Oxford : one of the King's commissioners to the Court of Pekin, and afterwards for some time member of Parliament for South Hampshire, and for the Borough of Portsmouth. Printed for private circulation, Pranava Books 2008

245 pages New. 2008. Reprinted from 1856 edition. PRANAVA BOOKS edition. This is a quality reprint of an old book of historical value. This is an exact/strict reproduction, no changes has been made in respect to the original text. A lot of effort has been made to check and improve each page/scan manually for its quality of text and illustrations (if any, are in b/w). This is not a retyped or an ocr'd book. The title of the book, on the cover, is in gold lettering. New

Details

Staunton, George Thomas, Sir, 1781-1859,Barrow, John, 1808-1898,Barrow, John, Sir, 1764-1848,Trimen, Andrew: Memoirs of the chief incidents of the public life of Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart., hon. D.C.L. of Oxford : one of the King's commissioners to the Court of Pekin, and afterwards for some time member of Parliament for South Hampshire, and for the Borough of Portsmouth. Printed for private circulation, Pranava Books 2008

245 pages New. 2008. Reprinted from 1856 edition. PRANAVA BOOKS edition. This is a quality reprint of an old book of historical value. This is an exact/strict reproduction, no changes has been made in respect to the original text. A lot of effort has been made to check and improve each page/scan manually for its quality of text and illustrations (if any, are in b/w). This is not a retyped or an ocr'd book. The title of the book, on the cover, is in gold lettering. New

Details