Journal d’un voyage en Chine en 1843, 1844, 1845, 1846.
Author: Itier, Jules
Year: 1848 – 1853
Edition: First edition
Publisher: Paris; Dauvin et Fontaine, libraires-éditeurs
Category: Asia
Three volumes, contemporary morocco over decorated cloth, 8vo. Collation as follows:
Vol. I : Half title, frontis: “Maison de campagne de Pan Tsen Chea.”, title page, pp. 5 – 371, (1), 1.
Vol. II : Half title, frontis: “Vue de la ville flottante de Canton.”, title page, pp. 5 – 358, 8, 1.
Vol. III: Half title, frontis: “Vue du fort Conchinchinois de Non-Naÿ.”, title page, pp. 5 – 391, 1.
Vol. I illustrated with a geological map of the Cape of Good hope, coloured by hand and a large folding table.
Vol. II illustrated with a plate of musical notation, titled “Airs Chinois”.
Both, the three frontispieces and the two plates protected by a tissue guard. All three volumes complete with preliminary and trailing blanks.
Vols. I and III with a light, absolutely unobtrusive tidemark in a part of the upper margins. Unfortunately pages 19/20 of volume I badly stained as well as some minor stains on the pages 21~28, though not affecting legibility. There also is a smal stain on the frontcover of this volume.
A stamp of a private collector (Sung Ling Fang) on the preliminary blank of each volume and a handwritten inscription on the preliminary blank of vol. I.
Marbled endpapers which are a bit soiled near the edges.
Despite the flaws as described above a collectible copy of a rare, highly interesting book with only 4 unique records in RBH and ABPC together. Contemporary three quarter Morocco, gilt filets near the spines over the leather and the corners gilt lined, the spines divided in five compartments by four raised and gilt bands. The titles in the second and fourth compartments with the other compartments tooled in gilt.
These copies are illustrated with three beautiful, different and clean frontispieces, being the first daguerreotypes ever taken in – and published here, in duotone, about China.
These volumes contain a wealth of information on the Cape of Good Hope, the île de Bourbon, the Maldives, Malacca, Singapore, the Phillipines, Macao, Canton and China, Hong Kong, Mindanao, Java, Cochinchina (Vietnam), Ceylon and Aden, while these volumes contain an abundance of statistical information as well.
Lust: Itier was an agronomist, with strong commercial interests, from Montpellier, attached to a mission to see Ch’i-ying about the Franco-Chinese Treaty. Much observation of Hong Kong, on close terms with the economist Pao Shi-ch’en.
Jules Alphonse Eugène Itier (1802–1877) was a French customs inspector and amateur daguerreotypist, who began experimenting in the process soon after the public announcement of Daguerre’s discovery in 1839. In December 1843, Itier accompanied French diplomat Théodore de Lagrené on his journey to China, where the diplomat had been posted to complete negations for the Treaty of Whampoa. This was a commercial agreement between France and China concerning the opening of ports in the regions of Canton and Macau. Itier documented the conclusion of the treaty and took a number of daguerreotypes of Chinese people and landscapes in Canton.
The frontispieces in volumes one and two, Masion de campagne de Pan Tsen Chea près Canton and Vue de la ville flottante de Canton are after two of the original daguerreotypes Itier produced travelling in Canton. The frontispiece of the third volume, Vue du fort cochinchinois de Non-Naÿ depicts the Non-Nay Fortress on the Vietnamese Island of l’Îlot.
Biblio: Lust; Western books on China published up to 1850, 645.
