Lot 262 , Rare Chinese book, Imperial Edition of the Illustrated Book of Documents Qinding shujing tushuo, Provenance - A. T. Arber-Cooke
Rare Chinese book, Imperial Edition of the Illustrated Book of Documents 'Qinding shujing tushuo', 31st year of Guangxu 1905, edited by Sun Jianai, 16 volumes in two rust coloured cloth folding cases Provenance - A. T. Arber-Cooke
Estimate £800-1,200
Both of the cloth outer cases are stained, discoloured and faded with rubbed labels. The books contained within are generally in good clean condition with some occasional minor brown spotting to the interior pages and a few dog eared corners to the exterior. All top edges of the 12 volumes are slightly grubby where the books have stored upright.
4 out of 6 volumes in the second folder have some bleached water staining to the edge of the back covers by the spine but fortunately this has not affected the inside pages. Please note the clasps are made of red stained bone.
Provenance - Alfred Theodore Arber-Cooke (c.1905-1993); thence by family descent. Purchased from C.P.J. van der Peet, Amsterdam for 750 Dutch florins.
Arber-Cooke was an antiquarian and avid collector of Asian works of art, and antiquities principally collecting from the 1930s to the 1970s. He amassed a good reference library on Chinese & Asian coins and wrote on several occasions (1969-70) to to the academic F.A. Turk regarding the study of coin amulets and other non-currency coinages of China. A number of the Asian numismatic reference books will be offered in our 29th March sale.
Arber-Cooke initially lived in Wimbledon, Greater London and was involved with the Surrey Archaeological Society. He wrote the book 'Old Wimbledon', with a foreword the MP Sir Arthur Fell, published in 1927. He later moved to Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, Wales, again involved with local archaeology and wrote the History of Llandovery, published in 1975.
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Sold for £7,000