The Temple of Heaven

Abstract

"John D. Zumbrun ... was official photographer at the ceremony ..." which took place Dec. 23, 1913. Includes bibliographic references (in t.p. note) Text in English. Illustrations in black and white. Original string binding, heavy paper wrappers with titles "Peking. Art Series V." in English and "Bei Jing Mei Shu Pin Di Wu Bu" in Chinese characters on front. A photographic plate "The Great Wall of China" pasted on front cover. Covers slightly worn at the edges and corners. About 3cm splittings on top and bottom of front cover. Spine head and foot worn with paper damage at the top. Pencil marks on first page. Light water marks on top of back cover. Otherwise in a very good condition. Without publication date, circa 1910s. Illustrated with 30 mounted collotypes photographic plates, captions in English. A scarce album edited and published by John D. Zumbrun in Beijing. It contains views of Peking, chiefly buildings, temples depicting life in Peking in 1910s-20s, including "Camels under the Tartar Wall", "Hunting Park Pagoda - Western Hills", "The Glorious Pines - Pi Yun Ssu", "Western Hills", "The Chien Men Gate - North View", "Corner of Forbidden City, from the Central Park", "Old Entrance at Great Wall - Nankow Pass", "East Gate Pagoda", "The Camel Back Bridge - Summer Palace", "The Ch'i Nien Tien- Temple of Heaven, from the Park", "The Incense Burner", "Ceiling of the T'ai Ho Tien - Throne Hall", and others. John David Zumbrun (1875-1949) was an American photographer, born in Hanover, York County, Pennsylvannia, USA. Zumbrun served eight years in the United States Army before moving to Beijing where he set up and ran a commercial photography business and studio, the Camera Craft Company, in the Legation District, Peking (Beijing) in 1910. The Camera Craft Co. published mostly colorized post cards and pictorial albums. In 1929 Zumbrun left China for San Francisco. Size: 11.4X9.3X0.3 inches 31 pages. Seller Inventory # 000670