Maskee [Hand-Colored] [Signed Limited Edition] [Leporello Binding] [1939]

China [Shanghai]: Self-published (at the Yellow Hall), 1939. Very Good/No Dust Jacket As Issued.
JAZZ, VICE, and VANISHED SHANGHAI
A vibrant and satirical visual record of pre-WWII Shanghai nightlife and social friction, hand-colored and signed by the Austrian caricaturist Friedrich Schiff.

This accordion-style sketchbook captures the collision of East and West in the final years of the International Settlement, documenting the interactions of sailors, 'taxi-dancers', and local residents with a 'no-holds-barred' wit. Schiff's work serves as a primary visual ethnography of a vanished colonial world, produced in the city's legendary 'Yellow Hall' just before the Japanese occupation reshaped the region forever.

KEY FEATURES
+++ Visuals: 21 plates of caricatural illustrations, each individually hand-colored by the artist. Includes the iconic 'Paramount' dance hall and Filipino jazz band scenes.
+++ Binding: Original decorated silk-brocade covers featuring a stamped bamboo motif. Bound as a 'leporello' (fan-folded) allowing for a continuous panoramic display.
+++ Content: Satirical sketches of Shanghai's 'joints', nightclubs, and street life, capturing the 'Barflies' and 'sing-song girls' of the 1930s.
+++ Imprint: Shanghai; Friedrich Schiff. 1939. Numbered 570 in an unspecified limited edition.
+++ Specs: Quarto; 10.5 x 7.5 inches. 21 leaves.
+++ Design: Features Schiff's unique signature 'sketch-hand' style, noted for its economy of line and expressive cross-cultural observation.
+++ Scholarship: Documents the 'International' caste system and the seedier cross-cultural undercurrents of pre-war China.
+++ Signed by the author/artist on the title page as issued.

CONDITION -- Very Good+.
+++ The Book: The internal leaves are tight and square with light, even age-toning. There is minor offset from the hand-colored drawings onto the facing pages, which is common and expected for this format.
+++ The Silk: The original silk-brocade covers are handsome and well-preserved, showing only minor handling wear and light rubbing at the extremities. A remarkably crisp example of a fragile, overseas production.

HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE —
Friedrich Schiff was the preeminent cartoonist of Interwar Shanghai, spending 18 years documenting the city's poignant and often ridiculous cultural collisions. Maskee-a Pidgin-English term meaning 'never mind' or 'it doesn't matter'-perfectly encapsulates the reckless hedonism of a city living on borrowed time.

Schiff's 'sketch-hand' captured everyone from 'sing-song' girls to colonial police with a wit that continues to influence modern Asian graphic artists. This volume is a primary visual source for the Art Deco period in the East, predating the abrupt end of Old Shanghai brought on by the Japanese occupation and later Revolution.

SUBJECTS: Shanghai, China, Caricatures and Cartoons, Social Conditions, 1930s Nightlife, Jazz Age, International Settlement, Signed Limited Edition, Art Deco, Leporello, Asian History.