Travels in China, Containing Descriptions, Observations, and Comparisons, made and collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a subsequent Journey through the Country from Pekin to Canton. In which it is attempted to appreciate the rank that this extraordinary empire may be considered to hold in the scale of civilized nations. Illustrated with several engravings.

BARROW, John.

Published by London: Printed by A. Strahan, Printers-Street, for T. Cadell and W. Davies, in the Strand, 1804

About this Item

First edition, with the second state frontispiece, of this highly influential account of the 1792 Macartney mission by his personal secretary. Interspersed with a meticulous day-by-day account of the mission are descriptions of artefacts, novelties, musical instruments, and the abacus. In the process, Barrow "established new standards for travel writing" (ODNB) Barrow (1764-1848) offers a more comprehensive and accurate record than that published in 1797 by Sir George Staunton, broadening European knowledge of Asia at a time when western politicians and merchants were increasingly looking eastwards. For Barrow, the embassy also marked the beginning of his meteoric rise. In the following decades, as second secretary to the Admiralty he presided over a formative period in British exploration, including the voyages of Richard and John Lander to discover the course and outlet of the Niger, as well as the arctic expeditions of John Ross, James Clark Ross, and Sir John Franklin. Bibliographers have not previously noted that, concerning the frontispiece portrait of Wang Wenxiong (a senior mandarin), two states of the plate variously give the artist either as Thomas Hickey (1741-1824), the mission's official artist, or William Alexander (1767-1816), its draughtsman. Although Alexander most likely executed the portrait, his share of the credit was, on paper, short-lived, as the plate was soon re-engraved with Hickey's name, and this second state was later used for the second edition (1806). This change might be attributed to professional jealousies and an inferiority complex: although Barrow credits Hickey with the portrait on page 184, he subsequently suggested that Hickey was strapped for work and hired out of sympathy rather than due to his talents. On the ground in China, Alexander outshone his more senior colleague, and while "there is some dispute over the amount of work Hickey achieved on the Embassy. even the most generous estimate of four pictures hardly suggests activity to match that of his junior draughtsman. According to the diarist Joseph Farington, a close friend of William Alexander and of Hickey's sculptor brother John, Thomas Hickey, unproductive himself, was jealous of the prodigious production of his junior" (Wood, p. 102). In 1805, a selection of Alexander's sketches and drawings was published as The Costume of China. "His meticulous, highly finished technique using pen, ink, and tinted wash is distinctive. [and] his engravings and soft ground etchings were much admired" (ODNB). Abbey 531; Bobins, The Exotic and the Beautiful 279; Cordier 2388-9; Getty, China on Paper 10; Hill 62; Howgego I B36; Löwendahl 724; Lust 365; Speake, pp. 75-76; Tooley 84. Frances Wood, "Closely Observed China: from William Alexander's Sketches to His Published Work", British Library Journal, vol. 24, no. 1, Spring 1998. Quarto (260 x 200 mm). Hand-coloured aquatint and stipple frontispiece portrait of Van-ta-gin by Thomas Medland after Thomas Hickey, 4 hand-coloured plates (3 aquatint, 1 stipple) by Medland after William Alexander, 3 engravings (2 folding), illustrations of Chinese characters and musical notation in the text. Contemporary marbled calf, spine lettered in gilt on black label, raised bands, compartments with gilt foliate lozenges and dog-tooth rolls, boards bordered with stylized Greek key roll in gilt, board edges with diagonally hashed gilt fillet, turn-ins decoratively rolled in blind, marbled endpapers and edges, blue silk bookmarker. Spine ends worn, gilt bright, front board with a little stripping at foot, patch of skinning on rear pastedown, 4A2 and 4A3 proud, frontispiece shaved at foot losing imprint, ZZ3 and ZZ4 sometime cropped at margin, text unaffected, plates bright with more pronounced foxing to uncoloured engravings: a very good copy presenting handsomely on the shelf.

Seller Inventory # 164169

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Travels in China, Containing Descriptions, Observations, and Comparisons, made and collected in the Course of a Short Residence at the Imperial Palace of Yuen-Min-Yuen, and on a subsequent Journey through the Country from Pekin to Canton. In which it is attempted to appreciate the rank that this extraordinary empire may be considered to hold in the scale of civilized nations. Illustrated with several engravings.
• Publisher: London: Printed by A. Strahan, Printers-Street, for T. Cadell and W. Davies, in the Strand, 1804
• Edition: 1st Edition