Containing around 300 vintage gelatin silver prints mounted on 77 brown cardboard pages; each page (except for one) with four postcard-sized photographs, including a total of twelve Japanese postcards with pasted-on copy prints and seven postcards with Chinese and English inscriptions. All photographs annotated in black ink in Dutch on the upper and lower margins on the front, some also on the reverse. Japanese album cover of black-lacquered wood, inlaid with a rickshaw group of carved bone, with landscape details in brown lacquer. Leather spine. Inside cover pages restored; some leaves torn or damaged at the edges. The album is a remarkable and fascinating record of the presence of Western allied troops in Beijing between 1919 and 1923, following the Boxer Protocol of 1901. It was a time when, in the face of the weak Beiyang government, various factions were vying for dominance. In the summer of 1917, for example, there was a coup d’état led by General Zhang Xun (1854–1923), which was accompanied by a reign of terror and the restoration of the Qing heir to the throne, Puyi, though this lasted only twelve days. After Zhang was defeated by Duan Qirui, he fled first to the Dutch legation and then to Tianjin, where he was pardoned in 1918. Numerous photographs (a portrait of General Zhang Xun, a photograph of General Cao Kun with troops, corpses) bear witness to these turbulent and bloody days. These photographs, along with the numerous images of street scenes, craftsmen, means of transport (camels, donkeys, horses), funerals, and buildings (pagodas, temples, temple interiors, the Peking summer palace, various gates), are commercial photographs. Others, meanwhile, depict the various foreign legations, groups of Dutch sailors and guards, as well as Dutch individuals in their quaters. This album was compiled by Gerrit Wijnand Munnik (1884–1963), who served in Beijing from 1919 to 1923 as a second-class marine in the Dutch Navy. Following the unrest in Beijing around 1900, during which the Western diplomatic quarter was threatened by an uprising against the Chinese dynasty, various countries sent military support. The Netherlands provided, among other things, the armoured cruiser H.M.S. Holland and a landing division of marines. These remained stationed in China until 1923 as so-called legation guards. After his posting, Gerrit Wijnand Munnik settled in Doorn, where he spent the rest of his life. This town also has links to the Dutch armed forces, as it is still home to military training barracks.
Size of most photographs 8.5 x 13.9 cm; measurements of the album 27.2 x 37 cm
Gerrit Wijnand Munnik (1884–1963), and thence by descent
Anonymous photographer

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