Le Cahier Jaune. Noel 1929. [The Yellow Notebook - Christmas 1929]

Extremely rare Nachbaur publication with caricatures by José Gallostra (1895-1950), then secretary of the Spanish legation in Peking. Gallostra was clearly a man of many talents and it was on the occasion of a joint train trip to Nanjing, in order to attend reinterment ceremonies of President Sun Yat-sen (1866-1925), that he worked on sketches for this publication. The album includes rare renditions of ministers of the Republic of China, as well as the foreign diplomatic corps in Peking. One of them, John Van Antwerp MacMurray (1881-1960), Minister of the United States, noted that Gallostra had a “genius for caricature, and an irrepressible spirit of mockery” (letter of July 19, 1929, see ref. below). In the album MacMurray is shown holding a film-camera (plate ), and Princeton University, who own the MacMurray archive, have made three clips of his films available that were taken during this very trip. The second clip (after min 8:05) shows Gallostra at work with his sketchbook on the platform of a train-station, a truly magic moment! <https://blogs.princeton.edu/mudd/2010/08/trip-to-attend-the-interment-of-sun-yat-sen-1929/>. Subsequently, Gallostra ended up in Mexico, working as Franco’s unofficial representative to further relations between Spain and Mexico, when on February 20^th, 1950 he was assassinated by a Spanish anarchist.

 

The present copy belonged to Jean Bardac, American wife of the financier Jacques Bardac, director at the Banque Francaise in Peking, who also appears amongst the caricatured (plate 23). With Gallostra's signature on the last leaf, dated January 10th. Very rare. Only one copy in OCLC (University of Hong Kong). Not in CCFr (Catalogue Collectif de France).