My Travels in China, Japan and Java – HH Raja-i-Rajgan Jagatjit Singh (1905) (1st ed)

S$1,000.00

My Travels in China, Japan and Java – HH Raja-i-Rajgan Jagatjit Singh (1905) (1st ed)

S$1,000.00

An impossibly rare book – the personal record of a journey undertaken in 1903 by the King of Kapurthala, Jagatjit Singh, with his wife. With 56 rare photographs, a frontispiece, and a map.

Title: My Travels in China, Japan and Java

Author: HH Raja-i-Rajgan Jagatjit Singh of Kapurthala

Publisher: Hutchinson & Co, 1905. First and only edition.

Condition: Hardcover, vellum bound with crest embossed on front board. Hinges fragile but holding, interior very good. Inscription in Italian by previous owner on front blank. A magnificent book.

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An impossibly rare book – the record of a personal journey undertaken in 1903 by the King of Kapurthala, Jagatjit Singh, with his wife. With 56 rare photographs, a frontispiece, and a map.

About the author:

Sir Jagatjit Singh Bahadur GCSI GCIE GBE (24 November 1872 – 19 June 1949) was the ruling Maharaja (Emperor) of the princely state of Kapurthala in the British Empire of India from 1877 until his death in 1949. He ascended the throne of Kapurthala state on 16 October 1877. He assumed full ruling powers in November 1890 and then commenced a career as a world traveller and Francophile. He received the title of Maharaja in 1911. He built palaces and gardens in the city of Kapurthala; his main palace Jagatjit Palace there was modelled on the Palace of Versailles.

He also built in the Kapurthala city’s mosque and a handsome gurudwara at Sultanpur Lodhi, sacred to Guru Nanak.

He served as the Indian Representative to the League of Nations General Assembly in Geneva in 1926, 1927 and 1929, attended the Round Table Conference in 1931 and was Lt Governor of the PEPSU at the time of his death in 1949, aged 76. He was cousin of Sardar Bhagat Singh, one of the few Indian Justices of High Court during the British Raj. His grandson Arun Singh was a Minister in the Rajiv Gandhi government.

More about him here.

From the preface:

This book is written chiefly as a record of my brief visit to the Far East and for the purpose of presentation to my friends. It makes no pretension to literary excellence, being designed more
as a record of facts and personal impressions of people and places seen, than to emphasise any claim, on my part, to consideration from the public as an author. It may, I hope, be found interesting to those who are now following the course of the war between Russia and Japan, as it describes, to a certain extent, some things about the latter country, and it gives a brief account of some interesting parts of Manchuria and other places, on which, owing to the war, public interest is now centred.

Contents:

JOURNEY TO COLOMBO

Colombo — Singapore — Saigon— Hong-Kong

CHINA

Shanghai — Mixed Tribunals — Chinese City— Chifoo— Tien-Tsin — Pekin— Sir Ernest Satow— Tien-Tsin— The Great Wall of China — Shanhaikwan — Ncwchwang — The Trans-Siberian Railway — Dalny— Port Arthur— Em route to Japan

JAPAN

Nagaaki— Shimonoseki — Yokohama— Kioto — Sir Claude MacDonald — Garden Party at British Legation, Tokio — Yokohama — Koma- kura — Imperial Garden Party — Tokio — Ball at British Legation — Japanese Society Wedding — Imperial Duck-Hunt — Utsonomiya — Japanese Troops-— Imperial University, Tokio — Prison — Museum — Chuzenji — Temples, Nlkko — Visit to the Emperor, Tokio — The Emperor of Japan — Imperial Palace — My Birthday — Japanese Polo — Pheasant Shooting — Barracks — Japanese Troops — Departure from Tokio — Excursion to Lake Hakone — Nagoya — Ancient Capital of Kioto — Katsura Gava Rapids — Kioto — Nara — Great Geisha Dance — Lake Biwa — Osaka — Great Arsenal, Osaka — Departure from Kobe—S.s. Koenig Albert — Good-bye to Japan

SHANGHAI

Chinese Man-of-War — Shanghai — Chinese Dinner — Hong-Kong — At Sea — Singapore— Johore—En route to Java

NETHERLANDS INDIA

Netherlands India — Batavia — Life in Batavia — Buitenzorg : Visit to Governor-General — Botanical Gardens, Bandong — Visit to Chief’s College — Djocjokarta — Visit to Temple, Boroboedoer —
Grand Temple — Visit to Sultan, Djocjokarta — Solokarta — Sultans of Java — Sultan of Solokarta — Reception by Sultan of Solokarta — Javanese Dance : Solokarta Palace — Sultan’s
Stables — Reception by Sultan of Djocjokarta — Javanese Characteristics — Homeward Bound