La Chine et les Chinois - Auguste Borget 1842 - Goupil &, Paris - First Edition Complete set of this renowned and highly prized collection of plates on China, including views of Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton.

Tinted lithographic title page and thirty two sepia tinted lithographic plates on 25 sheets by Eugène Cicéri after Borget, letterpress text and title page, and two leaves of dedication.

‘The feeling of superiority to the Chinese, so characteristic of accounts from the 1840s, is absent here. The artist observes with a fresh eye.’ - Lust,
Western Travellers in China.
  An important and early record of the landscape and people of Hong Kong, Macao, and Canton. Borget, who was a pupil of Jean-Antoine Gudin and a close friend of Honoré de Balzac, journeyed around the world in 1836, travelling through South America and Hawaii before reaching the China coast in August 1838. In the fall of 1838, fellow artist William Prinsep went sketching with Borget in Macao, remarking that he found the Frenchman's portfolio "rich with scenes from South America, Sandwich Islands and China, and he was a pleasant fellow into the bargain." He continued his circumnavigation in July 1839 with a visit to Manila, and then sailed for India via Singapore and the Straits of Malacca, eventually returning to Paris in the summer of 1840.

References: Abbey Travel 540. Cordier,
Bibliotheca Sinica, 79, 3027. Lust Western Books on China, 211.

Large folio (binding size 57x40cm, plate size 55.3x38.6cm), pp. [2] title page plate [2] illustrated title page plate, two dedication plates, [1 (list of plates)] [1] 26 (
Explicacion des Dessins) [2] 32 plates on 25 sheets (each with protective blank sheet) [2].
  Bound in contemporary possibly the publisher s half brown morocco over brown cloth boards, spine lettered in gilt and ruled in gilt and blind, yellow coated endpapers.   Condition: Very good, heavy toning due to paper stock on pp.1-16 & 21-24, and plates I-IV, VII-VIII, XIV-XVII, XXIII, XXV-XXVIII, balance of plates clean or with very light spotting, tape residue to plate IV, tape ghosting to illustrated title plate not affecting illustration or text, in very good binding, some rubbing to edges and bumping to corners.   Ref: 112016   Price: HK$ 210,000