Peking the Beautiful, Herbert C. White 1927 and similar items

Peking the Beautiful – by Herbert C. White Shanghai, The Commercial Press, 1927 First edition EXTREMELY RARE TO FIND IN SUCH CONDITION AND PRESERVED IN THE ORIGINAL BOX. Introduction by Hu Shih, former professor of philosophy at the National University of Peking. A spectacular presentation of the sights of Peking including the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, South Sea Palaces, Hunting Park Pagoda, and much more. ESPECIALLY SCARCE IN THE ORIGINAL BOX. Author: White, Herbert C. Title: Peking the Beautiful. Comprising Seventy Photographic Studies of the Celebrated Monuments of China's Northern Capital and its Environs Complete with Descriptive and Historical Notes Place Published: Shanghai, China Publisher: The Commercial Press Date Published: [1927] 155 pp. 70 tipped in photographs, some in color. (Folio) 39.5 cm x 31.5 cm (15” x 12") Original embroidered blue silk binding, spine lettered in Chinese characters. Original two-part pictorial box. First Edition. About this Item and Condition: Mounted photographic frontispiece and 70 plates, sepia or tinted, some color, illustrations, occasional soiling and light offsetting, original very good condition embroidered dark blue silk, upper cover with title and image of a temple and decorative floral border, some portions of textblock shaken and binding stressed, but no loose pages, preserved in original pictorial box with protective glacine paper. Box split at corners and with old paper tape repairs on inside, some now split again, light wear and scuffing to box top illustrations. More info: The Commercial Press, Shanghai, China, 1927. First edition of this work comprising photographic studies of the celebrated monuments of China's northern capital with descriptive and historical notes. Embroidered silk pictorial boards. Contains 70 photographic plates mounted, numerous illustrations in text. Contains an introduction by Hu Shih, professor of Philosophy at the National University of Peking. In 1927, photographer and art director of Signs of the Times Publishing House in Shanghai, Herbert C. White, published Peking the Beautiful. White dedicated the book, "To All Lovers of China's Glorious Artistic Heritage”. 1920s China was a period particularly marked by the emergence of photographically illustrated publications dedicated to famous places. Peking the Beautiful is a photograph album of scenic places in Beijing, published in 1927 by the Commercial Press in Shanghai. The photographs were taken by Herbert C. White, who also wrote the descriptive and historical notes and the preface. Hu Shi (1891-1962), the Chinese scholar and philosopher, wrote the introduction. The cover, title page, preface, and explanations are all in English, but the titles of the photographs and the title on the back cover are in Chinese. The 70 photographs were originally black and white, or black and white with hand coloring. They were attached to the pages subsequent to the printing to prevent counterfeiting. Each photograph has a title in Chinese placed right beneath the image. The album has a beautiful binding, with padded hard boards, wrapped in embroidered silk. Herbert C. White (1896-1962) arrived in China in 1922, together with his twin brother James H. White (1896-1954). They opened a language school in Beijing. Attracted by Chinese landscapes and civilization, they used their vacations to travel around the country and took large numbers of photographs. This album is a selection of photographs of the city gates and walls, the Temple of Heaven, the Forbidden City, and the temples and monasteries of Beijing. It presents a realistic view of the city’s appearance during the early Republican era.