279 - CHINA BY BALLOON - THE FIRST AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA

CHINA BY BALLOON - THE FIRST AERIAL PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHINA A set of two albums belonging to a member of the Corps of Engineers, featuring the first aerial views taken from a balloon in China in 1901–1902. Aerial views from a balloon: Tien-Tsin, French, British, and German concessions, train station; Beijing: the commander of the balloonists’ unit, mounted on his balloon, attaches the French flag to the summit of Péta; Jade Island; legations; Lotus Lake; Central Lake; St. Joseph’s Cathedral; the Observatory, general view of the bishop’s residence, a crater created by the explosion of a mine set by the Boxers near the new Beijing Cathedral. Torture and corpses, astronomical instruments, the Legation Quarter, Consul Leduc, imperial palaces, temples, scenes of daily life, execution of the murderer of Baron de Ketteler, German minister, railroad tracks, a head hung on the city walls, balloonists’ detachment, a Chinese woman with bound feet, a juggler, a female musician, a mandarin, the emperor’s bed, the emperor’s brother, Summer Palace, palace guards, the inauguration of the train station, the funeral of General Julius Karl von Groß, known as von Schwarzhoff, who died during the fire at the Winter Palace (Boxer Rebellion), a few albumen prints enhanced with Japanese motifs, and a few citrate prints from Morocco. Photographs. 2 albums containing approximately 128 and 165 vintage citrate or silver gelatin prints. Images: 4 x 5 cm to 20.8 x 26.5 cm; albums: 24.5 x 32.5 cm and 27.5 x 36 cm These two albums contain the prints reproduced in the famous book *La Chine à terre et en ballon* (China by Land and Balloon), published in 1902 by Berger-Levrault. These photographs were taken by three officers from the École Polytechnique who served in the 1st Engineer Regiment: Gustave Plaisant (1873–?), an aerology specialist in charge of the balloon engineers’ section, Jean-Bernard Calmel (1865–1939), a railway engineer, and Louis Tissier (1863–1947), who specialized in drawing and photography. Our collection of albums was compiled by one of these members of the 1st Engineer Regiment who embarked from Marseille for China on August 22, 1900. The equipment used by the trio consisted of two Carpentier twin-lens cameras with Zeiss lenses, fifty boxes of photographic plates, chemicals, photographic paper, developing trays, frames, and drying racks. It includes aerial photographs of Beijing and Tien-Tsin taken from tethered balloons. Most of the images reproduced in the book are found in this collection. They are extensively captioned throughout the pages. In addition, personal images enrich the collection. This is particularly true of several large portraits of Plaisant and Lieutenant Izard, which open one of the albums. Plaisant strikes his characteristic pose—one hand resting on the other—and chooses to position himself in front of a pavilion on Jade Island in Beijing. Another notable addition is a series of portraits of Chinese officials and women, including a photograph of a mandarin and his children. Foreword to “China by Land and Balloon”: “During the last campaign in China, the officers of the French Expeditionary Corps had many opportunities to exercise their talents as photographers. Some, as balloonists, took aerial views from the balloon of the vast cities of Tien-Tsin and Beijing, where Europeans get lost in the maze of narrow streets. Others, drawn by duty or simply by curiosity to the Imperial Palaces, or spending their leisure time on excursions through the Chinese streets, captured curious scenes and interesting monuments as they passed. All of this resulted in a most original collection, the reproduction of which was sought after by many of our comrades in the Expeditionary Corps.” Bibliography: “China on the Ground and in a Balloon,” Berger-Levrault, 1902. Alexandra Sence, “Photography During the Boxer Rebellion,” Research Thesis, École du Louvre, 2023.