Imperial Palaces of Peking by SIRÉN, Osvald - 1926: Two Hundred and Seventy Four Plates in Collotype after Photographs by the Author, Twelve Architectural Drawings and Two Maps with a Short Historicl Account.

Paris and Brussels: G. Van Oest, 1926. Two Hundred and Seventy Four Plates in Collotype after Photographs by the Author, Twelve Architectural Drawings and Two Maps with a Short Historical Account. Paris and Brussels: G. Van Oest, 1926.

First edition in English. There was an edition in French published simultaneously. Three quarto volumes (12 3/4 x 10 inches; 322 x 250 mm). [2, blank], vi, [1]-67, [5]; [4], [4] pp. With 274 collotype plates after photographs by the author, 12 architectural drawings and two maps, all but one of which are folding. In dust jackets and publisher's brown paper. Volume 1 contains the 14 drawings and maps as well as plates 1-72, volumes II contains plates 73-174, and volume III contains plates 175-274. Complete.

Publisher's full blue cloth. Spines lettered in gilt. Each volume in publisher's printed dust jacket and publisher's brown paper wrappers. Top edges gilt, others uncut. Jackets with some sunning to spines and edges. With a bit of chipping at jacket spine extremities and corners. Brown paper occasionally torn and with a few minor spots. Top outer corner of volumes III bumped, causing a wrinkle to corner of leaves, but not affecting images. Overall a very good set of this in the original cloth and rare dust jackets.

"The printing of this book was completed on January twenty two of the year nineteen hundred and twenty six by the Imprimerie National, Paris for G. Van Oest, Publisher at Paris and Brussels. Collotype plates printed by L. Marotte, Paris, after the photographs of the author." (Colophon).

Osvald Sirén was a notable Swedish art historian who documented China's architecture and gardens. "During the 1920s and 1930s, Siren visited China frequently to document the nation's art and architecture and purchase pieces for different museums and collections. in 1924, he issued his first monumental volume, The Walls and Gates of Peking. The text had a highly preservationist tone and was accompanied by photographs/illustrations. Two years later, Siren published The Imperial Palaces of Peking (1926) in English and French with a similar monumental format... All of these books took the format of photographic plates with accompanying text and a very few historical narratives..." (Nationalism and Architecture. By Darren Deane, Sarah Butler).

HBS 67987.

$7,500.