Shanghai of To-day. A Souvenir Album of Thirty-Eight Vandyck Prints of "The Model Settlement".

First edition. 38 tipped-in collotype plates. Folio. Original flexible decorated boards (some fraying to edges), with contemporary annotations in a neat hand on facing page of each plate, overall still a very good copy. 15(text)pp. Shanghai, A. S. Watson & Co. (the Shanghai Pharmacy Ltd.),

A fascinating document of 1920s architecture of Shanghai. Most of the city's famous hotels, banks, clubs, churches, trading houses and race courses are recorded, giving a vivid impression of Shanghai's importance as a foreign commercial centre in China. Green gives a concise introduction to Shanghai's history (which he based largely on Kotenev) and briefly discusses the future possibilities of the metropolis in response to demands made by the new republican government that the settlement be surrendered to Chinese administration. The annotations were clearly written by somebody who had a first-hand experience of the buildings and includes notes like: (Plate 34): "Jessfield Park is being improved all the time. Our Mr. MacGregor, Chief Horticulturalist, is a Master Artist, and Shanghai People are very appreciative of the fine open spaces and his lovely flower beds." This book went through two further editions (1928 & 1930) but the first is rarer than the others. 

Stock Code: 223836