KANN, Eduard.

£800 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Currencies of China. First edition, first printing, presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title, "To Messrs. Joseph Bros. with the compliments of the author. Shanghai, February 1926". A coin collector, Kann also wrote the Illustrated Catalog of Chinese Coins (1953). His enormous collection - "the finest known" (Kreisberg, p. v) - was sold at auction in 1971 and 1972, and some of his silver ingots are now found in the British Museum.Kann (1880-1962) was born in Austria but left Vienna in 1902 to work in the banking sector in China. After several decades working for different financial institutions including the Russo-Asiatic Bank and the Commercial Guarantee Bank of Chihli, he became a private bullion broker and an advisor to Chiang Kai-Shek's administration. In 1933, he served on the advisory committee for the formation of the Shanghai mint and, after a period of internment by the Japanese during the Second World War, he remained in Shanghai until the communist advance on the city in 1949. His collection of Chinese banknotes, as impressive as his coins, was sold by New York's Bowers & Merena in 2008.Joseph Bros was founded by the Jewish merchant Edward Menashih Joseph in 1913 in Hong Kong and opened its offices in Shanghai soon after.

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.