MENNIE, Donald.
Glimpses of China. A Series of Vandyck photogravures illustrating Chinese life and surroundings. Shanghai, A. S.
Watson & Co. Ltd, [1920?].
Oblong 4to, ff. [31], with 30 photogravures (c. 125 x 175 mm) tipped onto beige stiff paper mounts, borders and captions printed in brown; in very good condition, with none of the foxing usually seen on the title-page, in the original printed stiff paper album wrappers, small photogravure pasted down to front cover, secured at the left with yellow cord, edges worn and with small tears, small chip to foot of spine.
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Glimpses of China. A Series of Vandyck photogravures illustrating Chinese life and surroundings. Shanghai, A. S.
First edition, scarce, with thirty images taken across China. Some of the captions are descriptive, but others, in keeping with the pictorialist aspects of Mennie’s photographic practice, are poetic – “Where peace and calm contentment dwell serene”, “Some dim pavilion where my lady dreams” – with quotations drawn from Chinese classical poetry.
‘Although born and brought up in Scotland, Mennie spent most of his life in China … By 1914 he was working in China for the pharmacy firm A.S. Watson & Co. In 1934 the firm was listed as a “dealer in all kinds of photographic chemicals and apparatus”, a move which may have been influenced by Mennie’s interest in photography. Mennie’s first photographic work dates from 1914 and in 1920 he published his earliest photo-book. His passion for travel fuelled his photography and in 1926 he produced his magnum opus, ‘Grandeur of the Gorges’, which recorded his journey up the Yangtze River. Mennie’s style was concerned with capturing the atmospheric quality of the scene, not merely documenting it (National Galleries Scotland, online).
