- Lot 235

Lot n° 235
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- Lot 235
CHINA] Léon de HOYER AND CHARLES DAMIEN - Peking shadows, a novel of modern manners. Peking, Printing of the Peking Policy, 1917. Large in-8, sewn in Chinese style, first cover illustrated. ORIGINAL EDITION. [4], 140 pp. ORIGINAL EDITION of one of the most delightfully decadent novels by expatriates who lived in Peking at the beginning of the 20th century and helped to forge the mysterious image of the Chinese capital. Portrait of the concubine of the sweet fragrance on the frontispiece. Complete with a note that the authors could not avoid some typographical errors because of the "native staff". One of 24 numbered copies (no. 1) on Korean paper, the only large paper. This key novel was written by two hands by Count Damien de Martel (1878-1940), who signed Ch. Damien, chargé d'affaires and soon to be head of the French legation in China (appointed in 1917), and Baron Leon Viktorovich de Hoyer (†1939), director of the Peking branch of the Russian-Asian Bank, a curious character known by the sobriquet "intrigue personified". Their agreement fizzled out and a few years later de Martel used his influence to have his co-author expelled from China... Source: preface by Adam Williams in the 2010 English edition, Silhouettes of Peking (https://graycity.net/l-de-hoyer-d-de-mart/156452-silhouettes_of_peking.html)
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