Tibet/ Mongolia/ Nepal

KT 123

Tibetan dancers at the 1925 Paris Expo of Decorative Arts.

Price: $60.00

KT 121

18th century Grueber engraving of the Northern Tartar women of Lassa and Tartars of Koko Nor. 21x35cm. B

Price: $50.00

KT 120KT 120

Unique collection of 99/100 photos taken by Professor Giuseppi Tucci during his 5th and final expedition to Tibet, from April-October 1948. During this expedition he visited Gangtok, Yatung, Gyantse, Lhasa (visited also Ganden), Chushul, Samye, Ngari Tratsang, Zingji, Chonggye and Yarlung valley, Gyantse, Shigatse, Rhe, Kampadzong , Gangtok. All original, each photo contains the written initials GR in the corner. I cannot identify who this photographer is as the ones listed for this expedition were Piero Francesco Mele, Regolo Moise and Fosco Maraini. I checked online and there are a few photos from that expedition showing the photographer as anonymous. None of the photos online match any photos in this collection. The collection covers all facets of Tibetan life, even showing Tsarong, the Minister of Finance. There is a letter from one Walter H. Weinstein of 19 East 88th St. NY, NY. Dated January 12, 1947, it reads as follows:

Dear Professor Tucci

KT 120Enclosed you will find an article that I thought might interest you in some manner. May I suggest that upon your return from your great contemplated trip that you select some qualified literary agent in this country and publish a full report or, better still, a series of articles to be run in a magazine of the type of one of our great weeklies here. Whether it be the Saturday Evening Post or Life Magazine, with vastly new and interesting pictures, I am sure the result will be profit to the great American public as well as to you. The whole idea is thrilling and capable of securing tremendous response. So many people would have such a great interest. Educators, seekers of entertainment value, believers in mysticism of the unknown East, and the vast public who literally devour the reports of any explorer, not alone the reports of an archaeological authority.KT 120

By the way, I noticed acknowledgement of Heim and Gansser in their book Throne of the Gods, of your help when they organized their expedition in 1936 Sincerely Walter H Weinstein.

As this collection was purchased in Italy, and I can find no record of any of these photos anywhere and given the letter from Weinstein to Tucci, this appears to be from Tucci’s personal collection. Each photo is fixed to craft paper, all of which contain the remnants of a wax seal in the corner. Each photo captioned in Italian on reverse.KT 120

Price: $8000.00

Note from Wikipedia: Giuseppe Tucci June 1894 – 5 April 1984) was an Italian orientalist, Indologist and scholar of East Asian studies, specializing in Tibetan culture and the history of Buddhism. During its zenith, Tucci was a supporter of Italian fascism, and he used idealized portrayals of Asian traditions to support Italian ideological campaigns. Tucci was fluent in several European languages, Sanskrit, Bengali, Pali, Prakrit, Chinese and Tibetan and he taught at the University of Rome La Sapienza until his death. He is considered one of the founders of the field of Buddhist Studies.

KT 116