Contains 5 signed photography postcards, the last issue of the premier San Francisco Chinatown magazine, 2 World War II era booklets on Chinatown, and a catalogue of Asian Art collection
Chingwah Lee was a Hollywood actor, entrepreneur, art connoisseur, and the most prominent community leader of San Francisco Chinatown in the 1930s and 40s.
Includes:
• 5 movie photographic postcards, 3 x 5”, all signed on the image or on verso by Lee who acted in the films “The Good Earth” (1937), “Daughter of Shanghai” (1937, with Anna May Wong), “Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo” (1944), “Little Mr. Jim” (1946) and “Flower Drum Song” (1961)
• Chingwah Lee, editor. Chinese Digest, April-Sept. 1940. 38pp. The last issue of the premier San Francisco Chinatown magazine of the 1930s, which Lee failed to rescue from bankruptcy.
• 2 tourist booklets: “Chinatown After Dark” [ca. 1945. Grey Lines, San Francisco) 3 x 6”, 16pp. Illustrated with photos and drawings. Signed by Lee in English and Chinese; and the rare imprint “Chinatown, San Francisco’s Bit of Old China” (Chingwah Lee Studio, San Francisco, ca. 1945) 5 x 6.5”, 16pp. Illustrated with drawings.
• Sotheby’s Los Angeles. “The Late Chingwah Lee Collection, San Francisco / Fine Oriental Art”, June 8, 1981. 417 lots in 100pp. Auction catalogue profusely illustrated with photographs of Chinese, Japanese and other Asian art and objets d’art collected by Lee before his death in 1980