Authentic Account of an Embassy to the Emperor of China.. Taken chiefly from the papers of His Excellency the Earl of Macartney.

London: printed by W. Bulmer and Co., for G. Nicol, 1798.

Price: $13,500.00


About the item

Second edition, corrected. With 2 engraved portrait frontispieces, one engraved plate and 26 engraved illustrations to the text; atlas volume with 44 engraved plates and maps (including one folding & 6 double-page). 3 vols. 4to and Folio. Bound in contemporary half red straight morocco and vellum sides. Some offset to title pages, occasional spotting and minor dust-soiling. Red morocco backed slipcases and chemises. Cordier, Sinica 2381–83; Löwendahl 697; Lust 545 and 547; Western Travellers in China 47; Cox I, 344.

Item #317036

The official account of Lord Macartney's voyage and embassy to the Qianlong emperor in 1792-94, “compiled by the Secretary (and Minister Plenipotentiary in the absence of the Ambassador) Sir George Leonard Staunton. Macartney’s chief object was to establish diplomatic relations with China. However, it is only on p. 411 in vol. 1 that the reader disembarks on Chinese soil” (Löwendahl). This corrected second edition was published the year after the first.