Li Zhuoxian, 'Gu quan hui' (Collecting old coins), published...

Hammer

£6,000

Li Zhuoxian, 'Gu quan hui' (Collecting old coins), published in Beijing, Tongzhi jia zi, 1864, 16 volumes and Li Zhuoxian, 'Xua quan hui' (Collecting coins continued) published in Beijing, Guangxu ji yuan yi hai, 1875, four volumes , all 26cm Provenance - A. T. Arber-Cooke

CONDITION: Gu quan hui - all 16 volumes have some browning to the edges of the pages and some minor water stains and occasional dog-eared corners. Later pencil annotations inside and faded ink inscriptions to the bottom edge. Volume 15 has Sellotape to a tear on the outer wrapper. Volume 1 has a tear and hole to the wrapper and there are a few other volumes with small losses to the wrappers.



Xua quan hui - all four volumes have some browning to the edges of the pages and some minor water stains and dog-eared corners. Later pencil annotations inside and faded ink inscriptions to the bottom edge. otherwise reasonable condition





Provenance - Alfred Theodore Arber-Cooke (c.1905-1993); thence by family descent. Arber-Cooke was an antiquarian and avid collector of Asian works of art, coins and antiquities principally collecting from the 1930s to the 1970s. He amassed a good reference library on Chinese & Asian coins and wrote on several occasions (1969-70) to to the academic F.A. Turk regarding the study of coin amulets and other non-currency coinages of China. A number of the Asian numismatic reference books will be offered in our 29th March sale.



Arber-Cooke initially lived in Wimbledon, Greater London and was involved with the Surrey Archaeological Society. He wrote the book 'Old Wimbledon', with a foreword the MP Sir Arthur Fell, published in 1927. He later moved to Llandovery in Carmarthenshire, Wales, again involved with local archaeology and wrote the History of Llandovery, published in 1975.