PBA Galleries

20pp. Original binding of marbled boards and leather spine. First Edition. Bookplate on front pastedown of L.P.Bush, M.D., an amateur Delaware historian, then a young physician at a Philadelphia hospital.

Catalog of the first comprehensive American exhibition of Chinese culture and art. 

he exhibition was assembled over decades by Philadelphia merchant Nathan Dunn, who lived in China from 1818 to 1832. On his return to the United States, he displayed his massive collection in a “Chinese Museum” that drew over 50,000 visitors before it was moved to London in 1842. This catalog lists, with explanatory notes, over 1000 items of all varieties, from paintings to porcelain, displayed in 53 cases, plus 50 life-size clay figures modeled after Dunn’s Chinese acquaintances in Canton. The added information in the catalog attempted to paint a picture of Chinese social life and culture, giving educated Americans their first informed view of the intriguing empire across the Pacific.