A photo of perhaps the most influential men in the Peking Legation Quarter in 1929 – here gathered on the steps of the Legation of the Netherlands…
Left to right – Sir Miles Lampson (UK), the Count de Martel (France, and also co author of the fantastically gossipy Silhouettes of Peking), Willems Jacobus Oudendijk (Holland), John Van Antwerp MacMurray (who was about to resign over a dispute regarding the KMT with the State Department in Washington) and Daniele Vare (Italy and the author of course of The Maker of Heavenly Trousers and other great Peking-set novels)…
A commemorative coin tray, made in China c.1949 and inscribed ‘From The Chairmen, National Chambers of Commerce to John Keswick, Shanghai, October 1950’. Not quite sure when exactly Keswick was given this gift – after the revoltuion he and his wife were put under house arrest and after that he went to Hong Kong, though Jardine’s did not finally close its PRC operations until 1954. Anyway, here it is with half a dozen Republican-era coins stamped into the tray. I rather thik I would have sold it at auction later too as it’s not the most charming or valuable object ever received by a taipan I expect
Bringing Forth the New provides a headlong introduction into the world of Chinese contemporary visual art, opening from the art world onto the political, technological and economic vectors of recent Chinese history. Each chapter reads an important facet of recent Chinese history through the work of a significant artist. From examining trade war and intellectual property through the work of political pop painters such as Yu Youhan, to the development of gendered constructs in China through the work of Cui Xuiwen.
American printmaker Dorsey Potter Tyson (1891-1969) was born in Maryland, though her work seems to have appealed most to English art buyers. She has been called an ‘armchair orientalist’, as her work often favoured Asian themes though she spent no time there.
This particular work is called Peking Cart. It is dated 1930 and was sold as one of an edition of 100 prints by a London gallery. It was probably copied from a postcard or another image and tells us little except that such ‘Oriental’ prints had a certain popularity in interwar Britain.
Lovely to see the just published paperback edition of Vaudine England’s excellent history of Hong Kong, Fortune’s Bazaar(Corsair Books) Daunt Books, Marylebone High Street….
The Beatles gave two concerts at the Princess Theatre at 130 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui on 9 June 1964. The support act was The Maori Hi-Five (who have not gone to such historical fame sadly but deserve a pic)
A selection of pages from photographer Herbert G Ponting’sFuji San, issued in Tokyo, by popular photo books publisher K Ogawa in 1905, The book featured 25 black & white plates from Ponting of Mount Fuji viewed from different locations and seasons, each image captioned in English and Japanese. The book was distributed by Kelly Walsh of Yokohama, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore. Ponting took the photos while in Japan covering the 1905/1906 Russo-Japanese War.
TG Purvis (1861–1933) – HMS Petersfield off Hong Kong – a Hunt-class minesweeper of the Aberdare sub-class built for the Royal Navy during World War I. She was not finished in time to participate in the First World War. Re-commissioned at Hong Kong on 23 February 1925 for service on the China Station as an admiral’s yacht.
