Beschreibung:

HONG, Jun (1839-1893). Zhong E Jiaojie Quantu [Complete Map of the China-Russia Border]. China, Guangxu period, 1890. Massive border map of China and Russia in 35 panels. The title and text are at top right; legend and scale are at bottom right. Each sheet is written in Chinese representing metal, wood, water, fire, and earth on the upper left corner for sheet sequence. The map adopts modern mapping techniques, including a conic equidistant projection and geographic coordinates; the meridian passes through St. Petersburg, the Russian capital. The map depicts the Sino-Russian border from northeast Heilongjiang Province to northwest Lake Balkhash. The detailed map applies colors and standard symbols. Trilateral borders and topography are portrayed in different colors: the Chinese border is indicated in yellow; Russian in red; and Korean in orange. Relief is shown by hachures; cities, the Great Wall, and roads are depicted with standard symbols. The map is based on the translated and revised version of the Russian map originally published in 1884, as stated in the inscription by the producer Hong Jun (1839-1893) printed beside the title at the upper right corner. According to Hong Jun’s biography recorded in Qing Shi Gao (Draft of Qing History), as a Chinese diplomat, Hong Jun visited Russia and returned to China in 1890, the same year the present lot was produced. Presumably it was Hong Jun who brought the Russian version of the map back to China, had it translated into Chinese and published. Two years later in 1892, Hong Jun represented China to mediate disputes regarding the Sino-Russian border and used a copy of the present lot as the reference, which excludes many frontier passes and observation posts along Pamir Mountains from the territory of China. This resulted in the impeaching of Hong Jun, who died a year later in 1893. A comparable is in the collection of the Geography and Map Division of the Library of Congress. Reference: Kuo-Hsin Hsieh & Ralph E. Ehrenberg, Reading Imperial Cartography: Ming-Qing Historical Maps in the Library of Congress (2013), pp. 362-363. Lithographic map hand-colored in outline, comprising 35 panels of 390 x 510 mm each, joined at short edges and contained in three accordion-style albums with orange paper covers, the first album comprising 12 leaves, the second with 6 leaves and the third with 17 leaves. The whole map is arranged with seven leaves in each row and five leaves in each column. The total 35 leaves are now transformed into three albums in a successive sequence starting from the leaf at the upper right corner to the one at the lower left. Text in Chinese. Title on the first leaf of the first album, index map on the fourth leaf of the third album. Each leaf with two Chinese numbering characters at the upper left corner. Provincial and national borders in light pink, dark pink and yellow; seas, rivers and lakes in light blue; all colored by hand. Map scale ca. 1:1,800,000. Relief shown by shading. (Toning, marginal tears, orange covers with surface abrasions and some staining. Album one: the first leaf [empty, with gold-flecks on verso] detached, some ink stains on both verso and recto, small holes on the last three leaves. Album two: some staining along the upper edges. Album three: the front cover with a large area on the left with ink stains, tears at the bottom, a long diagonal brown crease at the upper right, some spotting on other pages and the rear cover.) Exhibited: "The World on Paper: From Square to Sphericity," Hong Kong Maritime Museum, December 2019 to March 2020. Please note that this lot is subject to an import tariff. If the buyer instructs Christie’s to arrange shipping of the lot to a foreign address, the buyer will not be required to pay the import tariff. If the buyer instructs Christie’s to arrange shipping of the lot to a domestic address, if the buyer collects the property in person, or if the buyer arranges their own shipping (whether domestically or internatio