Details
SIR GEORGE LEONARD STAUNTON (1737-1801)
An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. London: W.Bulmer & Co. for G.Nicol, 1797. 3 volumes.(2 volumes text, 4° (310 x 250mm) and atlas volume, large 2° (570 x 418mm)). Text with engraved portraits of Lord Macartney and the Emperor Tchien Lung, engraved illustrations. (Light browning to title and last few leaves of vol.II.) Atlas with 44 engraved views, maps or charts, 2 folding, 6 double-page. (Small wormhole running through lower outer blank margins, the final 13 plates with dampstain to outer blank margins, outer margin of one plate just shaved into image area.) The text bound in contemporary calf gilt (neatly rebacked with blue morocco lettering-pieces). The atlas in modern half calf, spine gilt with blue morocco lettering-piece. Provenance: Viscount Melville (armorial bookplates in text volumes).
FIRST EDITION. George, Earl Macartney was despatched to Beijing in 1792 travelling via Madeira, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Cape of Good Hope and Indonesia. He was accompanied by Staunton, and an entourage of suitably impressive size (including Staunton's 11 year old son who was nominally the ambassador's page, but by the time of the embassies arrival in China was the only European member of the British party able to speak mandarin, and thus 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, and the second to gain permission for a British minister to be resident in China. The first objective was reached, the second was not. Macartney was twice granted an audience with the Emperor, in December 1793 he was sumptously entertained by the Chinese viceroy in Canton, and returned to England via Macao and St.Helena, arriving in September 1794. Cf. NMM I p.219. (3)
An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China. London: W.Bulmer & Co. for G.Nicol, 1797. 3 volumes.(2 volumes text, 4° (310 x 250mm) and atlas volume, large 2° (570 x 418mm)). Text with engraved portraits of Lord Macartney and the Emperor Tchien Lung, engraved illustrations. (Light browning to title and last few leaves of vol.II.) Atlas with 44 engraved views, maps or charts, 2 folding, 6 double-page. (Small wormhole running through lower outer blank margins, the final 13 plates with dampstain to outer blank margins, outer margin of one plate just shaved into image area.) The text bound in contemporary calf gilt (neatly rebacked with blue morocco lettering-pieces). The atlas in modern half calf, spine gilt with blue morocco lettering-piece. Provenance: Viscount Melville (armorial bookplates in text volumes).
FIRST EDITION. George, Earl Macartney was despatched to Beijing in 1792 travelling via Madeira, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, Cape of Good Hope and Indonesia. He was accompanied by Staunton, and an entourage of suitably impressive size (including Staunton's 11 year old son who was nominally the ambassador's page, but by the time of the embassies arrival in China was the only European member of the British party able to speak mandarin, and thus 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, and the second to gain permission for a British minister to be resident in China. The first objective was reached, the second was not. Macartney was twice granted an audience with the Emperor, in December 1793 he was sumptously entertained by the Chinese viceroy in Canton, and returned to England via Macao and St.Helena, arriving in September 1794. Cf. NMM I p.219. (3)