Sotheby's to auction 19th century Beijing map

A rare Chinese woodcut map of the Beijing city in the 19th century will be auctioned at Sotheby's in London on Thursday.

The map, Shun Tian Quan Tu, is 1.26 meters long and 1.1 meters wide. Names of the streets, hutongs, temples, palaces, gardens, rivers, bridges, as well as the city gates, were clearly labeled in Chinese on the map.

Richard Fattorini, director of Printed Books, Manuscripts & Topographical Photographs of Sotheby's said the map was probably based on maps of Ming Dynasty, as it does not show the Yonghe Temple, which was started in 1694 and completed in the first half of the 18th century.

Fattorini said the map is unlikely to be made officially by the imperial court, because there isn't very much details of the inner city of the Forbidden City, or the imperial palace.

The map's price is estimated at 30,000 to 40,000 British pounds (45,900 to 61,200 U.S. dollars), but Fattorini said based on previous auction records, the hammer price of the map might be doubled.

Sotheby's didn't give much information about the current owner of the map, only saying it's "property" of a "gentleman".

An album of 60 photographs of Xiaman, a coastal city in southeastern Fujian Province, and the surrounding areas, including Gulangyu, Haicang and Quanzhou, will be sold on the same day with the estimated price of 40,000 to 60,000 pounds. Many of the photos were taken by St Julian Hugh Edwards, a significant photographer working in Xiamen at the time.

Two other well-preserved albums of Ningbo, Beijing and vicinity will also be sold alongside the map. They were taken by Australian officer and British missionary doctor working in China at that time. Price of each of them is also estimated at 40,000 to 60,000 pounds. (1 British pound = 1.53 U.S. dollars) Endit