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VIEWS OF MY TOUR / PEKING - A 1930s SOUVENIR CHINESE PHOTO ALBUM WITH FIFTY-FIVE HAND-COLORED SILVER GELATIN PRINTS
Author Not Stated. NP (Likely Peking, CHINA). ND (Circa Early 1930s).: No Publisher Stated. Edition Not Stated. Oblong 8vo. Gilt-Stamped Boards with Ties. Photographic Album. Near Fine/No Jacket - As Issued. np (56pp), 55 individual 3 ¼ x 5 ½" hand-colored black and white silver gelatin photographs. Text in English. In a protective clear acetate dustwrapper. Measuring 5 ¼ x 8 ¼" and gilt-stamped "Views Of My Tour / Peking" across its textured silk-brocade front cover, this is an elegant, professionally produced souvenir photo album likely made in Peking for the English-speaking Chinese tourist market sometime between the mid-twenties and the mid-thirties. Hand-assembled rather than printed, with no publication information other than the front cover title, its contents are fifty-five vintage black and white silver gelatin prints of Chinese views that have additionally been hand-colored with photo oils loosely inserted into sequential album pages with typewritten captions in English for the first fifty plates glued below. Primarily architectural or archaeological in nature, the images depict Peking's Forbidden City, Temple of Heaven, Summer and Winter Palaces, Lama Temple, Ming Tombs, and The Great Wall of China. A most handsome example of this uncommon item whose hand-colored photographs are bright and well-preserved showing the annotation "Fall 1930 Howe & Kreuter / Nov. 1935 Kilbourne Kreuter" in ink along the top edge of the first page. Inventory Number: 026730