Boxer Uprising (7 results)

First appearance in print of this report by the commander of the Royal Engineers in the China Expeditionary Force, including eight photographic illustrations taken in and around Beijing and two detailed plans showing the defensive state of the city and the British Legation during the summer. The plan of the legation was executed by Lieutenant H. E. C. Cowie of the Royal Engineers, while that of the city was derived from maps prepared by the US Engineers and French and Japanese forces. The illustrations depict Chinese defensive structures, the burnt rear gate of the British Legation, and a hole blown in the wall of the imperial city. Large quarto, pp. 66-9 in the journal. With 2 folding leaves of plates and 2 folding colour plans ("Plan of British Legation Peking"; "Peking: June 20th - August 14th 1900") loosely inserted as issued. Original printed wrappers, wire-stitched as issued. Plate leaves and plans in excellent condition with just a little edge-wear; spine fold splitting along bottom half, light toning: very good.…

A piece connected with the first British cruiser to arrive on the scene in north China in June 1900. Troops from Orlando were involved in the attack on the Taku Forts, the defence of Tianjin, and the Seymour Expedition to relieve the besieged legations in Beijing. The vessel also steamed to Weihaiwei to bring the Chinese Regiment to the action. Orlando, the lead vessel in its cruiser class, was launched in 1886 and served on the Australia and then China stations. Its crucial role in events in China is marked by a memorial in Victoria Park, Portsmouth, UK. The memorial incorporates a replica of a Chinese bell seized at the Taku Forts during the attack. Circular metal ashtray (diameter: 82 mm), incorporating 1897 Chinese silver dollar (23rd year of Guangxu reign, Pei-Yang Arsenal issue, dragon design, discontinued 1899), upward-facing side smoothed; engraved with badge of HMS Orlando. Housed in original silk-lined box. Ashtray bright, gentle patina, a little bumping and marking; box somewhat worn: a well-preserved example.…

A typically thorough middy's log, including atmospheric descriptions of engagements in Tianjin either side of the storming of the Taku Forts. A 10,500-ton, Centurion-class battleship, Barfleur served as the flagship of Rear-Admiral Sir James Bruce, the second-in-command on the China station. Detachments joined both the Seymour Expedition and the Taku landing party. Carmichael served under Captain (later Vice-Admiral) George J. S. Warrender (1860-1917), who - together with the naval instructor, Henry Midgley - regularly approved and initialled this log. It begins with the ship at Hong Kong, when British naval manoeuvrings were only precautionary. On 10 June, having spent time anchored at Weihaiwei, Warrender was ordered to hasten to Taku to meet HMS Centurion and other vessels from the squadron. There, Carmichael formed part of a select group sent on a steam pinnace up the river to Tianjin to counter the approaching Chinese threat. In the city, he found the calm before the storm: "Everything was quiet Guard and marines placed at Temperance Hall. 1700 Russian with 8 field guns arrived and camped in French Settlement" (13-14 June 1900). On 17 June, the day the forts were attacked and taken, in Tianjin "a forced composed of British, Germans and Russians attacked the military college The college was taken within an hour and set fire to, a large quantity of small arms ammunition being destroyed." Entries describe a Chinese attack on Russian forces at Tianjin's railway station, British moves to destroy sniping positions, the impact of Chinese shelling, and the erection of barricades along the Bund. On 25 June, the Seymour Expedition, besieged in the arsenal at Xigu, was finally relieved by a force including bluejackets and marines from Barfleur. "The Commander-in-Chief's force were in a very bad way having only dirty river water to drink In the arsenal were found thousands of Mausers and Winchester rifles". Russian casualties during the explosive taking of the Beiyang Arsenal were heavy. In the aftermath of events at Taku, the Allies contended with ongoing threats, including a surprise attack on British, French, and Japanese forces at the railway station in early July. The log also charts the comings and goings of armed vessels and transport ships as the foreign forces consolidated the Allied advantage. An entry written a month after the relief of the legations in Beijing describes a surprise Russian bombardment of the heavily mined Beitang forts: "15 Chinamen were found inside the forts and were promptly shot" (20 September). Carmichael's attentive entries are matched in quality by his accompanying watercolours, maps and charts, and diagrams. Among the highlights are fine plans of the North-West Fort, the position of the Allied ships during the battle, and the centre of Tianjin, as well as a track chart of Barfleur's journey from Weihaiwei to Taku. Others include a plan of the anchorage at Weihaiwei and a watercolour of Liugong Island. Quarto (317 x 205 mm). With 182 pages almost entirely filled with neat manuscript. Tipped-in and loose manuscript material by Carmichael, including 19 maps and charts, 12 watercolours, 27 diagrams (1 folding), 3 tables, 4 sheets of observations. Tipped-in printed notice ("Prize Firing with Heavy Guns: H.M.S. "Barfleur". China Station, June 1901"). Original purple half roan, rebacked and refurbished to style, marbled endpapers, purple linen inner hinges. Occasional creasing and toning internally, illustrations bright: a well-preserved example. …

The centrepiece of this archive is Neat's atmospheric manuscript account of the action at Taku in June 1900, enriched with eight watercolours and sketches executed shortly after the battle's conclusion. HMS Daphne reached the China station in 1898, and Neat transferred to Endymion shortly after the Boxer Uprising broke out. Written between 9 and 27 June, his narrative captures the British response to fast-moving events. He describes the Chinese threat to train services and escalating tensions at Tianjin, the likelihood that Russia will use the crisis to strengthen its influence in Beijing, and steps to counter the threat posed by China's four new German-built destroyers stationed at the forts. "Everyone is in a panic not knowing what is going to happen It is very probable that the wells are poisoned." Writing about the events of 17 June, he begins with the surprise Chinese gunnery attack in the dead of the night and the swift mobilization of allied landing parties. Regarding the attack on the north-west fort, the seizure of which provided the allies with a foothold to drive home their advantage, he recalls its brutality: "Several men were wounded in the courtyard whilst the gates were being forced, but the Japs who know the fort thoroughly doubled to a point of vantage and soon shot the Chinese As for the Russians they were like savages and shot down every Chinaman, whether he was resisting or not." Stragglers were sniped at nighttime by the light of ship searchlights. Neat was a talented artist, providing sketches for The Graphic. His four watercolours, each with detailed captions, show the northern end of the southern fort, the Japanese-occupied northern fort (HMS Algerine in the centre flying the flag of the commander-in-chief, Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Seymour), and the north-western fort flying the English and Italian flags after bitter fighting. He also drew banks used as cover by marines, SMS Iltis - a German vessel that suffered considerable damage - and a 12 cm Krupp gun that was captured and turned on the northern fort. Pasted in is a souvenir of Taku: an 1870 document issued by the Qing court and picked up after the dust had settled. His service either side of the battle is recorded in manuscript letters home and many more sketches, including of Hong Kong (the waterfront at Central; Happy Valley as viewed from the golf course's sixth green), Fuzhou, Nanjing, Jiujiang, and Weihaiwei, as well as of his living quarters and the officer's mess onboard ship. Studio and personal photographs capture the officers of Daphne (among them William Boyle, a future Admiral of the Fleet), the ship moored by the Bund at Shanghai, the city's famous Willow Pattern Teahouse, and Hong Kong's harbour. Among the ephemera are the menu and programme for an evening to mark Neat's transfer off Endymion in 1902, and newspaper clippings record his cricketing prowess - 96 not out and 7 wickets in the 1899 Daphne versus Alacrity match at Yokohama. Landscape folio album (380 x 280 mm). With 47 pp. of manuscript (with inset sketches) on bifolia or individual sheets (216 x 135 to 330 x 220 mm); 4 watercolours (c. 200 x 240 mm); 35 ink or pencil sketches; 3 large gelatine silver photographs (150 x 200 mm to 211 x 285 mm); 14 large albumen photographs (168 x 220 mm to 215 x 280 mm); 23 gelatin silver or albumen snapshot photographs (60 x 105 to 100 x 145 mm); ink sketch-map; ink sketch-diagram; 16 newspaper clippings and other pieces of ephemera. Most items tipped or laid in, a few loosely inserted. Contents captioned in detail in neat manuscript. Contemporary black half roan, recently rebacked to style, white linen endpapers. Foxing internally, particularly affecting paper used for sketches and watercolours but not offensive, photographs generally in good order with just a couple of marginal losses: a presentable collection.…

A juroku musashi board game, the pieces decorated with the national flags of the members of the Eight-Nation Alliance. The playing area advertises a company called Suga Kaikado, which sold books, stationery, and trinkets. We have traced no other copies. The centre, where the "parent" begins, is marked as Tianjin, a focus of hostilities. Each "child" also begins at a battle location, including Beicang, Yangcun, and the Taku Forts. The lower triangle features Peking Castle, Jehol (Rehe), and the International Legations. Juroku musashi developed in the Edo period as a popular board game. One player controls the "parent" piece and the other controls 16 "child" pieces; the goal is for the "parent" to capture at least 10 "children" by jumping over them, or for the "children" to box the "parent" into a corner so it cannot move. The "parent" begins play at the centre of the board and the "children" begin along the edges of the main square. Colour paper game board (261 x 371 mm). With 17 colour card game pieces (each 20 x 20 mm). Text in Japanese. Print bright, a little soiled and nicked at edges, pieces rubbed: a very good copy.…

Sole edition, presentation copy, inscribed by Walter Townsend's mother on the front free endpaper, "Mrs Brunker, with love, and most kind remembrances, from Mary A. Townsend Sept. 23 1900". Laid down on the pastedowns are two autograph letters signed to Brunker, one each from mother and son. Walter Townsend was appointed to the British government's China Consular service in 1899 as a student interpreter and arrived in Beijing the same September. When Boxer forces laid siege to the legation quarter in summer 1900, he enrolled in the volunteer corps and received two bullet wounds (one of the plates shows him on crutches). Sent to Yokohama to recuperate following the lifting of the siege, he died of typhoid fever. Townsend became famous for a lengthy letter, written to The Times in June 1900, which was carried in the newspaper's 16 July issue and offered a vivid portrayal of life in Beijing during the uprising. This letter, as well as many Townsend sent to his parents during his time in China, is printed in this volume, alongside laudatory obituaries published in The Times and other newspapers following his death. Following his cremation in Japan, his ashes were returned to England, where the family interred them in Aisthorpe, Lincolnshire, in the grounds of the church. Before his posting abroad, Townsend seemingly lodged with the recipient of this copy in Lincoln and came to know her well. Laid down on the front pastedown is an autograph letter, dated 8 June 1899, in which he thanks her "for all that you have done for me", writes that he must set out for China (via New York) the following morning, and asks that she keep hold of his set of bookshelves. On the rear pastedown is a second autograph letter, written by Mary Townsend (neé Houchen, 1851-1940) to Brunker and dated a couple of weeks after the presentation of this copy, by which point she and her husband have embarked on a voyage back to their home in America. The letter reveals the pain of her son's lost. "My dear Mrs Brunker, I quite intended to say goodbye to you and Lottie before we left, but when the time came I could not make up my mind. Everything about your house reminds me of my dear boy". She thanks Brunker for providing some articles owned by her son and briefly describes the progress of their voyage to America. This scarce book is recorded in only six institutions worldwide: the British Library, National Library of Scotland, Leiden, Harvard, Columbia Redlands, and University of California Berkeley. Octavo. Half-tone frontispiece after a photographic portrait of Walter Townsend, his facsimile inscription below, 3 half-tone plates showing the student interpreters at the British Legation in Beijing and Townsend's grave outside Aisthorpe church; all illustrations with tissue guards. Original tan cloth, front cover lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. Recent ownership signature at head of front free endpaper. Binding worn and foxed, tissue repair at foot of preface, light toning internally, nicks to laid-down autograph letters: very good.…

A substantial run of ephemeral newspapers printed by German forces stationed in Beijing after relieving the siege of the international legations. Collections of assorted issues are confined to German institution only. The Germans began publishing their newspaper on Christmas Day 1900 under the name Pekinger Tageblatt, and this issue (given a spurious numbering of "599") opens the collection. Fifty thousand copies were printed at a press symbolically located in the building of the former Zongli Yamen, an department of the Qing government dealing with foreign affairs which was abolished after the Boxer Uprising. The Christmas number reveals much about the makeshift conditions in which this new printing venture germinated. For example, the letters of the decorative banner on the first page - "Weihnachtsausgabe" ("Christmas Number") - are each formed by multiple Chinese characters, and on pages 3 and 4 the typesetters are forced to use a symbol to stand in for the letter "z", likely because they were using a font proportioned for printing in English. Publication continued weekly into 1901 - the name of the paper changed to Pekinger Deutsche Zeitung - and lasted for a further 24 numbers, this collection including all but the last three. The fragile newssheets mix updates on local military action with announcements of regulations, coverage of special events and the visits of dignitaries, cultural titbits, sports news, and advertisements. The supplement to the 27 January 1901 issue announces the death of Queen Victoria, while that for 3 March presents the new timetable for the Beijing-Baoding Railway. Provenance: contemporary ownership signature of one "Bartels" at the head of several sheets, likely Paul Walter Bartels (1872-1911), a military attaché at the German embassy in Beijing until 1907. Folio (435 x 315 mm). Text in German. Contemporary brown pebble-grain quarter cloth, Papier Torniquet sides, pink endpapers, comprising 21 two-sheet issues of "Pekinger Deutsche Zeitung", 4-sheet issue of "Peking Tageblatt", and 4 single-sheet supplements, thin paper, nearly all sheets same size as binding, sheets printed one side only. Old creases, some foxing and toning but text clear, first sheet with portion of text faded (just about legible) and small loss affecting only decoration, second sheet trimmed close at fore edge, couple of old repairs: an exceptionally well preserved collection of fragile material.…