First edition of a Chinese-English dictionary by the first American professor of sinology, and one of the first American missionaries in China. The work contains 7850 of the most frequently used characters in the Canton dialect. It starts with an introduction, which explains where Cantonese is spoken, how it differs from other Chinese dialects, and how it is pronounced. This is followed by the dictionary itself, a list of Chinese surnames, and an index to the characters. The present work served as the basis for the author's famous Syllabic dictionary of the Chinese language (1874).
Samuel Wells Williams (1812-1884) was an American linguist, missionary, and sinologist. In 1833, he travelled to China with the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to work with the Canton mission press in Guangdong. From 1848 to 1851, he was the editor of The Chinese Repository, a major Western newspaper in China. He wrote a number of books during his time in China, such as An English and Chinese vocabulary in Court dialect (1844). When he returned to the United States after a 40-year stay in China, he became the first professor of Chinese language and literature in the United States at Yale University in 1877. His work as both author and teacher helped Americans to understand the real China.
With the bookplate of Lucien de Rosny (1810-1871) mounted on the front pastedown, a bookbinder's stamp on the verso of the front flyleaf, a red Chinese stamp on the title page, and a contemporary annotation in Chinese and French in the back. The edges and corners of the boards are somewhat scuffed, the front board is nearly detached, the spine and boards are somewhat rubbed, affecting the gold lettering on the title labels. Some of the leaves are slightly shorter, without affecting any text, annotations in the margins of some of the leaves in a contemporary hand, the lower margin of page 437 has been strengthened with paper, slight soiling in the margins of the last few leaves. Otherwise in good condition. Cordier Sinica, col. 1599; WorldCat 5711012, 504501217, 459046274.