Sharp, James Bowman.

[Lengthy Illustrated Journal with Significant Far East Content].

Various places: 1862-1878. 12¾” x 8¾”. Quarter leather over marbled boards; stenciled/painted monogram to front cover. Pp. [6], 351 (approximately 70,000 words). Very good with moderate wear to boards which is heavy at edges and corners; internally near fine or better.

This is a long and meticulously kept journal by an Englishman, James Bowman Sharp, which covers 16 years of his life. The first 100 pages document Sharp's time in China and the Far East. He writes well, with exceptionally detailed passages regarding all he experienced, and his trip to the Far East has approximately 40 miniature watercolors and 19 pen and ink illustrations. We think it possible Sharp intended the book for publication as it has a detailed index as well as subject headers on most pages. Sharp was apparently in China for a spice trading company for whom he was indentured for seven years as of 1857. He was clearly a talented artist and apparently was also a word worker, with some of his works exhibited in 1881.

Sharp went to China during a significant period with respect to its relationship with England. In the 1860s, Britain's relationship with China was defined by the aftermath of the Second Opium War, which significantly increased British influence and power in China. The Treaty of Tientsin (1858) and the Convention of Peking (1860), resulting from the war, forced China to open more treaty ports, legalize the opium trade, and grant Britain control over parts of Kowloon. This period saw the establishment of British consulates and a legation in Beijing, further solidifying British presence and control. Also, as of 1862, China was experiencinig a period of intense internal conflict involving various rebellions and uprisings. The most prominent of these was the Taiping Rebellion, which was already well underway. Additionally, the Nian Rebellion, the Dungan Revolt, and the Yunnan Rebellion were also active, all contributing to the widespread unrest and instability in China during that time. Unsurprisingly, Sharp regularly shares news of conflict, and lived in a China that was in a constant state of flux.

The journal begins April 28, 1862 with a watercolor of a French ship on the Red Sea taken from the P&O Navigation Company's steamship Bengal. His first entry:

“As impressions made on the mind are so soon obliterated unless permanently fixed at the time, I commence these notes, hoping that a voyage to China, etc., may afford a few incidents worth recording, interesting (to the writer at least) to look back upon. This being about the first day in which I am able to write since leaving Southhampton owing to sea sickness and exhaustion. I must fill in from memory the incidents of the last nine days.”

So he went back to Saturday, April 19, 1862 when he traveled from London to Southampton to board the Ripon which reached Gibraltar on the 25th. He provided a small painting of the shoreline where he wrote, “the rocks shown have a very fine appearance especially when the water is lighted up and the lamps are reflected in the sea below.” At Gibraltar, the ship took on coal and “the Spaniards that assisted looked like the most cutthroat rascals though of course coal haulers rarely show to advantage anywhere.”

On the 28th, Sharp passed the Galite Islands, near Tunisia, and included a painting of its coastline. On the 30th he visited Malta and provided a detailed description of its architecture, streets and shops. On May 3rd, he reached Alexandria in Egypt where he caught a train to Cairo that ultimately derailed and he shared the harrowing tale. In Cairo, where he included seven watercolors of locals as well as one of a fully outfitted donkey:

“we saw a funeral procession; the corpse was carried in a dead box, covered with a white cloth and the attendants walked along singing a sort of doleful howl. We also passed a marriage procession in the Jewish quarter. The bride walked along covered with a long red bag put over her head like an extinguisher which reached down to her feet, her bridesmaids fawning over her as she went along.”

As of May 9th Sharp left Cairo and proceeded down the Red Sea; on the 11th he reached Aden in Yemen and had this to say about the locals:

“the Natives have many of them long reddish hair, very much like sheepskin mat, others have no hair at all and very strongly resemble monkeys of a rich sort of copper color. They are all famous swimmers . . .”

On May 21st they came in sight of Ceylon and May 29th found Sharp in Singapore where he vividly described his time at a fish market. This section has lovely illustrations showing shorelines in Singapore and China.

Sharp arrived in Hong Kong on June 4th and reached Shanghai on the 11th . His first impressions of Shanghai:

“The country is exceedingly flat and for miles round Shanghai has evidently been little better than a mud swamp until the last few years. There are but few roads out of this where people can walk or ride and these are for the most part lined with Chinese graves or uncovered coffins, it is by no means an uncommon sight to see corpses lying by the road side. The population is rapidly increasing on account of the influx of Chinamen from the different parts of the county visited by the rebels. In many cases they had to flee for their lives, leaving houses of property behind them and arrive in Shanghai almost in a state of destitution; often walking all day in the hot sun they drop down dead from exhaustion and very frequently remain some time without being buried. The variety of smells arising from different causes is extraordinary.”

He spent the next couple of years living in Shanghai. In early September he reported on rebel activity in the area:

“the country people had flocked in great numbers to escape from their merciless enemies, many of them looking as if in a state of starvation and destitution . . . the Rebels, numbering 4 or 5,000 had erected a temporary floating bridge over the SooChow Creek and our troops were a little too late to cut off their retreat.”

On the night of September 22nd he went to:

“Ying Tong's Sing Song which consisted of a dreadful noise of drums, cymbals and a kind of instrument (something like bagpipes out of tune) playing to all intents and purposes different airs, and a meaningless figure dancing about with a mask and spangled dress on, with the other figures sitting by our host supplied his guests with good champagne and sherry and Chinese sweet meats for those who liked them.”

Sharp frequently ventured to entertainment venues and there are many descriptions of performances. He was a tough crowd and many of his mentions are derogatory.

In early February 1863 he went to eat with friends and:

“we tasted a number of Chinese dishes, many of which consisted of some stringy substance, I believe fish fins. The domestics in attendance were evidently unaccustomed to knives and forks; one cut his finger and left the print of blood on the spoons which another cleaned (?) by putting them partially into his mouth and rubbing them upon his dirty coat, one of our party also observed that the same individual polished the knives by wetting his fingers and rubbing each side of the blade.”

February 18th: “China New Year Day. During this and the following two or three days very little work is done by the natives who at this season spend their time in eating, drinking, and making an awful noise by way of music.”

June 16th: “today many in the settlement were startled by a loud noise which proved to be a gunpowder explosion in the house of the watchmaker. It is supposed that the principle business of the watchmaker consisted in supplying the rebels with ammunition which was smuggled into Shanghai in Claret bottles and described accordingly. The watchmaker was fearfully burned and died a day or two afterwards.”

He made mention of American Independence Day on July 4, 1863:

“The Yankees again firing and making a considerable noise as last year. Weather hot and unpleasant 99 degrees in my veranda and 100 Chinese at least are said to be dying per day in the City, principally of Cholera but the foreign settlement is tolerably healthy.”

In late December he traveled to Songjiang:

“we came to SoonJiong (headquarters of Gordon's force). The suburbs are much destroyed by Rebels or Imperialists but the remains of some good dwellings still exist. We ascended a very fine pagoda within the city walls from which there was an extensive view of the tolerably pretty country around. The weather, which had hitherto been piercingly cold moderated a little this morning.”

In addition to military conflict, Sharp shared regular reports of crime both locally and throughout the country, and also relayed news of local fires and disasters. A few examples:

Jan 11, 1864:

“Three foreigners have been murdered, one in the direction of the Pagoda while shooting, and the two others up the Soochow creek in a boat. The first man was hacked to death with rakes, it is supposed for having shot a dog.”

March 9th:

“Another attack has been made on a policeman who had one off his fingers cut off, but the man was caught and sent into the city with a recommendation to the [illegible] to take his head off.”

March 11th :

“The report of a revolver was heard early this morning and out looking out of the window, the dead body of a Chinaman was discovered in the next compound. It appears that Nasgas saw a Canton man in his room at ½ past 3 AM under suspicious circumstances. The had a slight struggle and N. got at his revolver and the other man bolted. N. fired at him and killed him, the ball entering his back and going out at his chest. The very next day a clock was stolen from the same house. These outrages may doubtless be traced to some extent to the lax system adopted by the Municipal Council regarding night passes, any Chinaman it appears can now obtain one of these on payment of a dollar.”

On March 21, 1864, Sharp left for a trip to Yokohama, arriving on the 25th. He provided a lovely watercolor of a shoreline there and mentioned:

“the people in town seem very civil but almost every European is armed with a revolver at all times. The shops and houses are very clean, so totally unlike Chinese dwellings. The windows are of paper and the sliding frames are extremely neatly put together, the floors are covered with clean thick mats upon which 3 or 4 people are generally squatting, warming their hands at a box of charcoal and in most cases you see one or two hard at work writing in a corner of the room. The traders are troublesome to deal with and very independent but they appear far more intelligent than the Chinese. The natives as a rule are also finer looking and more muscular than their dirty neighbors in Shanghai.”

He left Yokohama April 15th and returned to Shanghai on the 19th. In March, he'd mentioned the murder of a friend whose last name was Lisa and on May 18th he shared:

“Lisa's murderer was decapitated today near the South gate of the City. A great many natives and a fair sprinkling of foreigners were present at the execution. I arrived just too late, as did several others. The head and body were left lying on the ground when we got there. The features struck me as being unlike those of a Canton man, but there appears to be but little doubt that the was the right party.”

In June he mentioned another cholera breakout and on July 14th he shared news of a major storm,

“a typhoon swept over Shanghai and its vicinity last night and early this morning doing much damage. Several cargo boats went down, great damage was done walls and chiefly houses and many lives must have been lost. 16 squares of plate glass were blown out of the new house and the tiles appeared to be playing at leap from over our heads. The Syrian was wrecked in the river and many other casualties doubtless have occurred though not nearly so destructive as the storms of a similar nature that visit the South. This is is stated to have been the most severe one known here, at any rate for several years past.”

October 25th he reported on the explosion of a ship, the tug General Ward, where everyone on board was killed. Throughout his time in China, Sharp made regular mentions of the comings and goings of countless named ships, as well as reports of ships that wrecked, exploded, were captured by pirates, or worse.

On January 28, 1865 he was in Ningbo where:

“I and two friends went into the city to see what we could. The inhabitants both here and in the suburbs were almost all dressed in their best, chin chinning their friends according to custom at the commencement of the New Year. The boats in the river were gaily decorated with flags. We took one of the house boys with us and were conducted to the Gokien Temple which is by far the finest thing of the kind that I have seen. The carved stone pillars are splendid and the coloring both inside and outside the building and on the Josses is very bright and carefully finished . . . the streets here are a trifle cleaner than those of Shanghai, but for stinks it is difficult to say which is the worst.”

In July he left for Kin-Kiang and gave a wonderful description of various sites there. August found him in Hong Kong where he complained about his lodging but ultimately had some fun:
“The bungalow is the strangest dwelling I ever was in being built principally of bamboo and mats, the floors and doors of thin planks, the whole structure resting on poles, the floor being about 9 feet from the ground. Went in the evening to the 'flower boats' where we saw a great many rouged young Chinese females and heard much native music, one boat was particularly gay being decorated with Moke Lee (used for scenting tea).”

As of August 19th he was in Macao where

“the houses look as if they were empty, are washed yellow, red or blue and generally have green shutters. The Praya is a pleasant place to walk upon and the 1st impression of Macao is that it is delightful; after you have been a day or so there, however, it appears the most deadly, lively place imaginable though decidedly pretty.”

He arrived in Sinagpore on September 5th and reached Penang on the 9th and ended up in Bombay as of the 24th. He shared great detail of the railway at Pune but not much more about India.

He sailed for home in October 1865, arriving in Marseilles on the 20th, but was kept on board the ship due to quarantine because of a cholera outbreak in Malta. He arrived home on the 24th and continued making entries for the next 13 years using up the rest of the book's 240 pages. He described seemingly countless boat and horse races, as well as endless visits to the theater and other forms of entertainment. He discussed the various wars in Europe, provided a lengthy description of the 1867 Paris Exposition, and shared his numerous trips all over Europe including Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Austria, Ireland, and Scotland. Throughout, he continued his vivid descriptions, including a long stay in Rome where:

“I went to the Princio Hill which is the fashionable promenade, there are also swings, a gymnasium; a band plays there twice a week. The King was driving about and I saw him well twice, no particular demonstration . . . The next day was a fine day (Festival of the Conception) and heard some fine music and smelled much garlic. Saw afterwards the Church of Santa Maria in Araceli and the somewhat celebrated 'Bambino' to which petitions are addressed at certain times. The latter is a doll with a dirty face and has very many apparently valuable jewels attached to its clothing which have been presented at different times.”

And later, at Vesuvius:

“a party of 9 including three ladies was made up today in order to ascend Vesuvius. Hired two threehorse carriages and drove up to the so called hermitage, close to the summit. Having picked up a guide and hind chairs for the ladies at Resina. The distance from the hermitage to the summit is not great but the ascent of the climb is very fatiguing on account of the sharpness of the loose ashes varying from the size of a pea to that of a walnut, besides loose stones and snow. Most of us were glad of some assistance in the way of pushing or pulling and in fact we were almost bullied into it by the numerous hangers on; how the bearers manage to drag chairs up such a place must remain a mystery to me, however we all got well up to the crater and perhaps none of us realized how near we were to actual fire until a thick stick was pushed into a hole about a foot square by the guide and was brought out blazing. The smell of sulphur at the crater is overpowering.”

A remarkable travel journal, beautifully illustrated, deeply researchable, and with much on China and the Far East. Very good. Item #8969

Price: $9,500.00