Kelly & Walsh

Rare first edition of this complete set gathering the three parts of this practical Cantonese manual, accompanied by one of the instructional booklets intended for the Chinese teacher.

The first two volumes are each illustrated with eight plates of ideograms printed hors texte. No copies recorded in the CCFr.

The third volume shows staining at the foot of the spine, a few small spots of foxing, and minor marginal tears with slight losses to the boards of the first volume.

A very uncommon set.

New edition, the most comprehensive to date, illustrated with 300 engravings, several maps, and followed by 18 appendices (cf. Cordier, Japonica, 694).

The original edition was published in 1899.

Contemporary half havana sheep binding, corners tipped with the same, smooth spine sunned and rubbed, decorated with blind fillets and floral tools, blind-tooled garland framing the bordeaux cloth boards, black paper endpapers and pastedowns, marbled edges.

Some minor foxing mainly affecting the endpapers, otherwise a clean and well-preserved copy.

Our copy lacks the atlas of 11 maps, which was not ready in time for printing, as stated on a slip mounted on the first endpapers ("Par suite d'un accident imprévu, la gravure et l'impression des cartes géographiques n'ont pu être terminées en temps voulu. Elles seront envoyées à part dès qu'elles auront paru").

Jacques-Edmond-Joseph Papinot (1860–1942) was ordained in 1886 and sent to Japan three months later. He taught at the Tokyo Theological Seminary for fifteen years and returned permanently to France in 1911.

Provenance: from the library of the Barante family, with a printed ex-libris label mounted on the pastedown.