‘The Most Useful Work Ever Published’
MESNY, William.
Mesny’s Chinese Miscellany. A Text Book of Notes on China and the Chinese, in two Volumes … Vol. I. Shanghai, printed at the “China Gazette Office”, 1896.
4to, pp. [2], 524, xvi (index); vignette to title, Chinese characters in the text; pp. 19–20 bound out of sequence, a few leaves browned, upper corners of index creased; overall very good in twentieth-century red cloth with remains of original covers laid down, spine lettered in gilt; small marks to covers; modern collector’s signature to front free endpaper.
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Mesny’s Chinese Miscellany. A Text Book of Notes on China and the Chinese, in two Volumes … Vol. I.
The first volume, collecting the first twenty-six weekly parts issued between 26 September 1895 and 19 March 1896, of a remarkable miscellany of all things Chinese, compiled by the Jersey-born adventurer William Mesny.
Mesny (1842–1919) spent almost sixty years in China, attaining high rank in the imperial army. He was also a Fellow of the Royal Geographical and Royal Historical Societies. Not one to shy away from self-promotion, he ends his preface here in confident vein: ‘I make bold to say that with all its faults, Mesny’s Chinese Miscellany will be the most useful work ever published, in any language on the many subjects of which it treats.’
The contents are undeniably eclectic: in the first few issues alone Mesny discusses the Chinese language, medicine, flora, etiquette, food, railways, and military matters, throwing in memoirs of his own adventures along the way.
OCLC and Library Hub record only three copies in the UK (BL, CUL, Durham) and three in the US (Catholic University of America, Harvard, Michigan). The series continued until its fourth volume, ending in June 1905.
Cordier, Sinica 104.