HEINE, Wilhelm (1827-1885)

Graphic Scenes of the Japan Expedition

New York: G.P. Putnam & Company, 1856. Folio. (20 1/4 x 14 1/4 inches). 12 leaves of letterpress text. 10 lithographic prints, including one tinted portrait of Perry on india paper mounted on thick paper from a daguerreotype by P. Haas and nine views by Heine (two chromolithographed, seven printed in two tints on india paper mounted), all printed by Sarony & Co. Small stab holes in the margins where the text and plates were previously stitched.

Publisher's original wrappers, text leaves, and plates loose within the original portfolio, leather renewed to style, with title in gilt on upper board. Within a modern half morocco clamshell box

An important work recording Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan.

William Heine was the official artist on Commodore Matthew C. Perry's expedition to Japan in 1853-54. On returning to the United States he produced several series of prints commemorating the trip. A group of six elephant-folio prints appeared in 1855, and the following year the present volume was issued, in a smaller format, with different images and with explanatory text. Both projects employed the New York lithographic firm of Sarony, among the best lithographers in the United States at that time. "As artistic productions, the pictures speak for themselves ... none superior to them have been executed in the United States, and they have no cause to shun comparison with some of the best productions of Europe" (Introduction). Copies were produced tinted (though with some plates with several colors) on regular paper [as in the present copy] and a deluxe hand-coloured issue on card. The plates are numbered and titled as follows 1. [portrait of Perry]; 2. Macao from Penha Hill; 3. Whampoa Pagoda; 4. Old China Street, Canton; 5. Kung-kwa at On-na, Lew-Chew; 6. Mia or roadside chapel at Yokuhama; 7. Temple of Ben-teng in the harbor of Simoda; 8. Street and bridge at Simoda; 9. Temple of the Ha-tshu Man-ya-tshu-ro at Simoda; 10. Grave yard at Simoda Dio Zenge. Bennett describes the plates as "many times finer than those in the regular quarto account of the Perry expedition." His remarks on the work's rarity are confirmed by its absence from both of Cordier's Japanese bibliographies.

Bennett, p. 53; McGrath American Color Plate Books 123.

Item #34662

Price: $17,500.00