Peking Studies -
Ellen Catleen (Thorbecke), Friedrich Schiff (illustrator)
1934 - Kelly &, Shanghai - First Edition
Describing the visit of Mr.Pim to Peking, where he meets with his colleague Mr Wu, and together they tour the wonderful city that is 1930’s Peking. As a gift to someone who is moving to China or has recently visited this is hard to beat. Things may have changed slightly though.
A clean, bright and thus scarce first edition of this charming large format book (38x27cm) beautifully illustrated throughout by Friedrich Schiff with a mixture of black and white or colour sketches, combined with photographs taken by Catleen on her Roliflex camera, with colour applied and a full page hand sketched colour map. Provenance: With a charming contemporary French inscription to the front free endpaper.
Friedrich Schiff (1908-68), an Austrian Jewish artist, moved to Shanghai in 1930 after an invite to visit from a cousin and lived there for 17 years. He had worked as a newspaper cartoonist in Vienna and continued this line of work in Shanghai, soon becoming famous for his amusing caricatures of the city's inhabitants. Prolific, Schiff’s cartoons appeared in books, newspapers, magazines and advertisements throughout China and the Far East.
Ellen Thorbecke, née Catleen (1902-73), was a distinguished German photo journalist who had worked in China throughout the 1930s and married the Netherland’s Minister in China Dr W. J. R. Thorbecke. - ‘In the 1930's, Dutch photographer Ellen Thorbecke took a series of photos in China with the use of many experimental techniques. Her portraits covered a wide range of people, including an industrialist, a peddler, a student, a country woman, a soldier and so on. Accompanied with every portrait, there was a brief biography about the person. Like her photos, those "micro stories" composed a "macro view" of the Chinese society. While most Westerners were interested in “typical scenes” of China, Thorbecke went beyond producing stock photography by telling the story behind each photo and thus depicting the deeper layer of the Chinese society.’ [Dr. Chong-ho Yu]
Thorbecke and Schiff, collaborated on a number of projects including Peking Studies (1934), People in China (1935), Mysterious China (1937), Hong Kong (1938), and Shanghai (1938).
Folio (book size 38.3x27.2cm), pp. 87 [1]. In publisher's cream cloth, spine lettered in black, front with red vignette, red silk strip lettered in black, and mounted photographic plate. Condition: Fine Ref: 112013 Price: HK$ 10,000
A clean, bright and thus scarce first edition of this charming large format book (38x27cm) beautifully illustrated throughout by Friedrich Schiff with a mixture of black and white or colour sketches, combined with photographs taken by Catleen on her Roliflex camera, with colour applied and a full page hand sketched colour map. Provenance: With a charming contemporary French inscription to the front free endpaper.
Friedrich Schiff (1908-68), an Austrian Jewish artist, moved to Shanghai in 1930 after an invite to visit from a cousin and lived there for 17 years. He had worked as a newspaper cartoonist in Vienna and continued this line of work in Shanghai, soon becoming famous for his amusing caricatures of the city's inhabitants. Prolific, Schiff’s cartoons appeared in books, newspapers, magazines and advertisements throughout China and the Far East.
Ellen Thorbecke, née Catleen (1902-73), was a distinguished German photo journalist who had worked in China throughout the 1930s and married the Netherland’s Minister in China Dr W. J. R. Thorbecke. - ‘In the 1930's, Dutch photographer Ellen Thorbecke took a series of photos in China with the use of many experimental techniques. Her portraits covered a wide range of people, including an industrialist, a peddler, a student, a country woman, a soldier and so on. Accompanied with every portrait, there was a brief biography about the person. Like her photos, those "micro stories" composed a "macro view" of the Chinese society. While most Westerners were interested in “typical scenes” of China, Thorbecke went beyond producing stock photography by telling the story behind each photo and thus depicting the deeper layer of the Chinese society.’ [Dr. Chong-ho Yu]
Thorbecke and Schiff, collaborated on a number of projects including Peking Studies (1934), People in China (1935), Mysterious China (1937), Hong Kong (1938), and Shanghai (1938).
Folio (book size 38.3x27.2cm), pp. 87 [1]. In publisher's cream cloth, spine lettered in black, front with red vignette, red silk strip lettered in black, and mounted photographic plate. Condition: Fine Ref: 112013 Price: HK$ 10,000