BEIJING.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Souvenir album of an October 1930 visit. An album of neatly composed studio photographs capturing the tranquility and majesty of Republican Beijing's old imperial architecture, as well as the lives of some of its varied inhabitants.The selection begins with shots of the Temple of Heaven, including two of the marble dragon and phoenix steps. Photographs of the Qianmen and Tiananmen gates show these structures adorned with slogans reading "strike down imperialism" and "quickly abolish the unequal treaties" - calls that would become ever louder in the run up to the Second World War. Photographs of the Forbidden City capture its eery quiet in the wake of the last emperor's abdication, as well as its beautiful bronze sculptures and surroundings, while a view taken from the top of Coal Hill looks southwards along the city's vertical axis.Foreign accounts of Beijing often invoked its residents, and this album is no exception. Photographs sows three priests at the Lama Temple, a camel boy, herders escorting a camel train through one of the passes at the Great Wall, and a wedding procession with musicians. Also appearing are a barber and his customer, and a restauranteur, as well as a woodcutter and a cobbler. This album was made available to guests by one of the city's studios, and this particular example has been personalized on the front cover with the name of one G. Knight, who visited China in the year before the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.

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