I posted recently on the Hong Kong portrait painter Yat On, who was based on Wyndham Street (here).
Here is a portrait of Royal Navy sailor H G S Waymark. The portrait is signed by Yat On in Hong Kong but not dated. However, we do know that Waymark served in World War One and was awarded the the 1914–15 Star which was awarded in all the theatres of the conflict. Anyway, I’m going to say this portrait is circa 1920.
(an update – my thanks to Brian Palmer for confirming that H.G.S. Waymark’s service record shows that he served at H.M.S Tamar, a Royal Navy shore base on Hong Kong island between 24.7.20 to 31.8.20 confirming the date of the portrait.)
Anatol M. Kotenev’s New Lamps for Old: An Interpretation of Events in Modern China and Wither they Lead – this is a first edition in original cloth published by the North-China Daily News and Herald, Shanghai, 1931.
A few years ago I wrote a Long Read for the South China Morning Post weekend magazine on the awful typhoon of September 2, 1937 that led to much loss of life and property, caused fires, floods, and epidemics. You can read that article here.
But I just saw a great poster titled ‘Typhoon’s Toll’ and detailing the tragedy of 1937….
A medal awarded to James Haines of the Royal Marines for service in the First Opium War (1839-1842)… A full on imperialist bit of Latin round the top – Armis Exposcere Pacem (They Demanded Peace by Force of Arms)…
Storm Over Lisbon (1944) is not a great film, but it is perhaps worth an hour and a half of a wet Wednesday afternoon – it’s here on Youtube). It’s one of a number of films that worked the same turf as Casablanca a couple of years previously but with the script, the stars or the magic. Storm Over Lisbon is a rather lacklustre tale of spying in the capital, a rather elaborate casino in Estoril and Americans mixed up in espionage. It does have Erich Von Stroheim, who was always keen to make anti-Nazi movies (though this is technically about Japanese spies in Portugal), but not much else. The director, George Sherman, was more about quantity than quality, Richard Arlen’s glory days were fifteen years behind him, Robert Livingtston does a sort of sub-par Cary Grant jolity and Vera Ralston (a Czech figure skater that moved to Hollywood) never quite managed the glamour of a Garbo or a Dietrich.
Still, there is an interesting sub plot that involves Shanghai. Everyone is chasing the Richard Arlen character who has been in China and then a Japanese POW camp in Burma. He’s escaped with some film that’s very important (a Hitchcockian MacGuffin). Throughout his time in pre-war Shanghai is referenced, indicating he is an exciting man of adventure. His friend, played by Livingston, is a clipper pilot, the Pan Am long-range flying boat. Now he’s piloting the lifeline from Lisbon to New York, via Bermuda. But previously he flew the New York-Shanghai route (which was advertised and trialed but never really got going). A nice nod to a now lost charmign form of travel and the notion of Shanghai prefiguring Lisbon as a nest of spies….
An interesting rare copy of Worte Des Vorsitzenden Mao Tse-Tung (the German language edition of Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung – also known as The Little Red Book) Peking: Foreign Languages Press, 1967. This is a first edition of the German language edition.
But whayt about the squiggles you may say? Well…
This copy is signed by Andries Oele and dated 1974 on the title page. Oele was a Dutch radical Maoist in 1970s Rotterdam. Following his murder by the husband of a woman he was having an affair with, his extensive library, almost exclusively of Socialist, Maoist and Maxist-Leninist subject matter, was sold.
The flysheet also has a handwritten note – ‘Pe 6.2.69. Gen. Hertsfeldt. Yu Zhen’, referring to the fact that the volume is believed to have been presented to General Gustav Hertzfeldt, the East German Ambassador to Beijing at that time, when he met with the Head of the Main Department in the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Yu Zhan, on this date.
But most importantly there appears to be Mao’s signature – only a handful of Little Red Books were actually signed by Mao.
By the way, it’s up for auction November 30th 2023 from a Glasgow auctioneer and valued at between £4,000-£6,000. Click here
These are all quite rare to see…(up for auction 22/23 November if you’re interested – here)
The Illustrated Catalogue of Chinese Government Exhibits for the International Exhibition of Chinese Art in London edited by the Chinese Organising Committee, Nanking, 1936, Vols I, II and III, with dust jackets; also Nanking published by The Commercial Press Ltd, Shanghai, China; S Howard Hansford Chinese Jade Carving published 1950; and The Hong Kong Countryside by J A C Herklots, published 1951 (6 Vols)…
