Foochow Races 1885

This year’s London Antiquarian Book Fair at Olympia was the usual host of things that are lovely but you can’t afford (or maybe you can…but I can’t!). One particularly lovely China-related item attracted a lot of attention – a programme for the second day of a horse (Mongolian ponies really) racing event at Foochow (Fuzhou) in 1885 courtesy of the dealers Voyager Press Rare Books of Canada (who have lots of lovely Chin and Asia stuff on their website). The event was on Tuesday, December 15th 1885 and you can expect all that all of treaty port society was there – tea traders massing in the stands! Races that day included the “Tea Merchants Cup” and the “Min” Stakes named for the local Chinese dialect of the region and the “Chaasze Cup” named for a famed British tea merchant. To top it all the programme was printed on silk! The sellers were asking GBP650 – not sure if anyone was lucky enough to have 650 quid to part with to let them own this beautiful object of old treaty port China?

You can see the programme here

Foochow around that time