[Rarebooks] FS: Slow Boat to China photo album

[Bob Petrilla]

S.S. Scharnhorst. PHOTOGRAPH ALBUM OF 152 ORIGINAL IMAGES, PLUS EPHEMERA,
DOCUMENTING A 1937 VOYAGE TO MALAYSIA, EGYPT, SINGAPORE, MANILA, HONG KONG,
AND SHANGHAI. The S.S. Scharnhorst, part of the Norddeutscher Lloyd Bremen
line, was completed in late 1935 and registered in Bremen. She was the
first big passenger liner built by the German Third Reich, running an
express service between Bremen and the Far East. About 1942, she was sold
to the Japanese navy, converted into an Imperial aircraft carrier, and
renamed the “Shinyo." She was sunk by a U.S. submarine in 1944.
This album contains 152 original photographs, plus ephemera, mounted to 120
leaves of heavy, black stock, interleaved with textured tissue guards. The
photos are of various sizes, ranging from 2” x 2 ½" (about 68 of these) to
several large shots, 7 ½” x 9 ¾” , and other sizes in between. None are
labeled. In addition to the photographs are 15 watercolor prints pasted in
(possibly from Scharnhorst menus), measuring about 6 ¼” x 4 ¼”, depicting
the Scharnhorst, three-masters, Egyptian feluccas, etc., One, labeled
“Penang,” shows the ship in a harbor with native boats; and one at the end
of the album depicts a street scene in an Asian city. Another 10 items of
Scharnhorst ephemera are pasted in: a dinner menu (dated Feb. 14, 1937)
with text in German and English, concluding, after a long list of goodies
for adults, with an item especially for children’s consumption: “Barley
Gruel with Prunes”; a breakfast menu from Feb. 17; a Jubilee Dinner
programme (Feb. 20) with an Egyptian felucca on the cover, giving the
details of the shipboard celebration of the Norddeutsch Lloyd Line’s 80th
anniversary; the Jubilee dinner menu; a dinner menu from March 3, noting
that “clocks will be advanced 40 minutes tonight”; a lunch menu from March
3, with “Penang” on the cover; and 4 two-to-six page “fact sheets” in
German, issued by Norddeutsch Lloyd and offering information on Signapore,
Manila, Hong Kong, and Shanghai. The post-bound album of black leather over
heavy boards measures 11" x 15". Very Good condition.
The first port of call is Genoa, and there are about 15 photographs of the
city, including the statue of Cristoforo Colombo, aerial/hilltop views of
the city, and a few street scenes. The next land shots are in Egypt,
showing street scenes with men in long robes and signs in French. Following
a “Penang” menu in the album are about 27 photographs taken in Malaysia,
including village and town scenes, one-story shops, ox-carts, palm trees,
and village houses, a rocky beach with palms, and natives with small boats
and outriggers. Next, a “Singapore” fact sheet precedes 10 photographs of
bi-planes in the sky, men in canoes, a man in a topee standing on the road,
riding in a rickshaw, etc. A “Manila” fact sheet leads into 18 photographs:
two European men on a road, two beach scenes, nature scenes with native
huts, city buildings, street views, and harbor views. A "Hong Kong" fact
sheet stands alone, while a “Shanghai” fact sheet precedes three poses
aboard ship—the final photographs in the album.    $300.00

Trade discount, postpaid in US, abroad at cost



    *  R & A  Petrilla*



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