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THBEmperor Puyi Signature (1924) with Tagore, Hedin, and Other
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About Auction
LiveJul 12, 2023
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- Lot Description
Xuantong Emperor of China, known as Puyi (1906-1967), who served as the 11th and final Qing dynasty monarch. He was known as ‘The Last Emperor’ and was the titular subject of Bernardo Bertolucci’s epic biographical drama film. Vintage red leather-bound autograph album, 8 x 10, containing an extremely rare, bold fountain pen signature of Puyi, the Xuantong Emperor, who has signed with his preferred English name “Henry,” with another hand adding his Chinese signature to the right. Immediately below on the same page are ink signatures of Reginald F. Johnston (1874-1938), a British diplomat who served as tutor and adviser to Puyi, and the Emperor’s younger brother Imperial Prince Pujie (1907-1994), who also signs with both his Western name (“William, 17 july 1924”) and in Chinese characters. English and German annotations below, the former done in the hand of Johnston, identify the signatures as belonging to Puyi and Pujie.
Moreover, the album contains over 110 other signatures in ink and pencil, most with additional autograph sentiments, many in German, although also including some entries in Chinese and English. Notable signatories include the Bengali polymath Rabindranath Tagore, who dates his signature to May 20, 1924; famed Swedish geographer, cartographer, and explorer Sven Hedin, who dates his signature to Peking on November 8, 1923; German surgeon and gynecologist Otto Eix; Gu Hongming, a British Malaya-born Chinese man of letters and friend of Leo Tolstoy; Erwin Rouselle, a German sinologist and professor of German philosophy at Peking University; Erwin Liek, a German physician, writer, and founding editor of the general health magazine Hippokrates; Max Halbe, a German dramatist, who was one of the main exponents of Naturalism (2); and Hans Driesch, a German biologist and philosopher, noted for his early experimental work in embryology and for performing the first artificial ‘cloning’ of an animal in the 1880s. The album contains many other signatures, which date between 1923 and 1950. In fine condition, with damage only to the album's spine, not at all affecting any of the clean interior pages.
Autographs of Puyi, the last Emperor of China, are extremely rare, with this being only our second example—and the first in over 10 years. The present example of the Xuantong Emperor’s signature is enhanced by the signatures of his brother, the Imperial Prince, and Johnston, his tutor, and close adviser. Furthermore, the signatures are dated at a significant time in Puyi’s life; a few months later on October 23rd, the warlord Feng Yuxiang led a coup that took control of Peking. Feng unilaterally revised the ‘Articles of Favourable Treatment’ on November 5th, a move that abolished Puyi's imperial title and privileges and reduced him to a private citizen of the Republic of China. Puyi was expelled from the Forbidden City the same day. - Shipping Info
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