Book, The CHINESE DRAMA, R.F. Johnston, Illustrations Winzer, Published 1921

Antiques : Book, Chinese, Chinese Drama Illustrations

 

This is a soft bound, 36 page book with six illustrations taken from original paintings by C. F. Winzer. Printed in English with some Chinese characters.

The narrative introduction states that Chinese drama has been neglected by students of Chinese life and thought. It also states that Chinese plays are so long that they are spread over many days and that "European" viewers can not listen to the whole play.

The six illustrations have retained their brilliant color and are printed on "slick" paper that is 5.75" x 8.75". They are attached to the page by the top only and could, if you wanted to, be removed. But who would want to, as the book as a whole is very desirable to the collector.

The book, however has suffered some age related damage, but is still in very desirable condition. The front and back papers are faded and are somewhat dogeared. The front cover is soiled around the title. The soft purple cording that holds the book together is frayed. The pages are slightly bent on the upper right hand side as the book itself was bent. Some of the lower right hand pages are also slightly bent. The edges of the pages suffer some foxing. Some of the illustrations have bent corners on the lower left which seems to have happened when the pages were turned. None of these conditions would keep a collector from being happy to have this book in a collection of Asian literature or art.

On the bright side, all the illustrations are present and the book is very readable and quite collectible. If in its presentation box and relatively un-damaged from age, the book could sell for as high as $450. or more.

I have included enough scans, I feel, for you to judge the condition. Please let me know if you need more scans and I will email them to you. I purposely did not scan entire illustrations so that they could not be copied. Let me know , by email, if you have any questions.

Measurements are 8.75" x 11"

Item ID: ph1989