Heine, Wilhelm | An important work recording Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan

Heine, Wilhelm

Graphic Scenes of the Japan Expedition. New York: G.P. Putnam & Company, 1856

Folio (514 x 362 mm). Letterpress text, 10 lithographic prints, including one tinted portrait of Perry on india paper mounted from a daguerreotype by P. Haas, and nine hand finished views by Heine, two of which chromolithographed, and seven printed in two colors on india paper mounted, all printed by Sarony & Co. Expertly bound to style in half purple morocco over period purple cloth covered boards.

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 case of the present copy, and a deluxe hand-colored 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 road side 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 account of the Perry expedition." His remarks on the work's great rarity are confirmed by its absence from both of Cordier's Japanese bibliographies.

REFERENCE

Bennett 53; McGrath, American Color Plate Books 123