The Pageant of Peking, Comprising Sixty-Six Vandyck Photogravures of Peking and Environs from Photographs

Donald Mennie; B L Putnam Weale; Samuel Couling

Shanghai: A. S. Watson & Co., 1920

First edition. Limited edition of 1000 copies.  Folio, 39 x 29 cm. Bound in original blue silk, with gilt lettering.  Some wear to cover cloth, with loss to silk at corner edges.  Solid binding. 4 preliminary leaves, 40 pages, 66 mounted photographs of old Beijing (Peking).   Descriptive letterpress on versos facing the plates.  Scattered foxing.   

"The aesthetic photographer Donald Mennie (1899-1941) was active in Shanghai and Peking from 1920 until the late 30's. His soft-toned pictorialist images of the capital and its people show the deep admiration which Mennie felt for the Chinese and their culture. This work includes 66 folio photographs of early 20th century Peking and the surrounding area and includes photos of famous views such as the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and scenes of shopkeepers, merchants, travellers and monks" (Western Travellers in China).