Florist's wrapping paper (3)

Another piece of decorated paper. The author recalls it was used by florists to wrap flowers. This particular pattern seems to be a bric-a-brac of several other patterns.

Bible Endpapers

Below is a small section of an Endpaper from a Pocket Bible. The last page tells us it was printed by D&H Brothers Industries CO. LTD. The pattern is a foliage design, printed in two shades of yellow. 

 The Bible itself measures 8 x 11 centimeters, so the fineness of the pattern can be imagined 

Incense wrappers (3)

Yet More Chinese Incense wrappers. These examples were collected around 2014. 

財神進寶香

"God-Of-Fortune enters [with] treasures  incense" 

A change from the Buddhist deities previously featured, this particular wrapper depicts the god of Fortune財神 . Symbols of wealth and Power float on clouds by the sides of the title. They are 

(Right hand row) -- A Jue 爵 (Goblet with three legs), a pair of ingots (元寶Yuanbao), a Calabash, a Pair of coins, and a ruyi 如意 scepter. 

The left-hand row contains the same objects, but placed in a different order. 

金旺來

富貴旺來香 

Golden "Pineapple" 

Prosperity and fortune incense

The name of this incense wrapper is a pun-- The chinese for pineapple 黃梨(Huang Li) or 王梨 (Wang Li) is very similar to the phrase 旺來 Wang Lai-- "Prosperity comes". This similarity is even more stark in Hokkien.  So the brand Golden pineapple may be interpreted as " Golden prosperity comes"

In any case, the makers of the incense have taken this to heart-- The label's background is entirely comprised of gold foil, applied by hot stamping.Alas, this brilliant gilt does not show up well on the scan. 

Book Cover-- Guandi Mingshen zhenjing 關帝明聖真經

 Below is the cover of the Guandi Mingshen zhenjing 關帝明聖真經-- Lord Guan's true scripture. This book was found in 2018 in Singapore. There, it is a custom for religious books to be freely distributed to the Public. To that end, shelves are placed in public areas, for such books to be placed. The book below is one such example. 

The book is bound in the Traditional Chinese manner, with thread, and the delightful wrapping-paper cover glued to the spine to form a wrapper. The book's creator has written the title 關帝明聖真經--Lord Guan's true scripture in a neat hand. In a smaller hand, to the botton left of the book is written 贈送品--  For Free distribution. 

The book is attributed to Lord Guan. 關羽 Guan Yu , The celebrated Chinese general. He is depicted to the right in a frontispiece. These illustrations were probably taken from a printed book. 

The first page of the text

Now we come to the most astonishing feature of the book. The text of the book is a photocopy of a Manuscript. By contrast, most books distributed in such a manner are typeset, and printed by large printing-houses. The production of this book must certainty be a small, cottage operation, reflecting the devotion of its creator. 

The second and third text pages of the text

The faint black frame around the texts comes from the Chinese Foolscap paper, that the scribe used to write this book on. The consistency of the scribe's handwriting must be praised. 

In addition to the photocopied portions, one of the book's owners has added a section in manuscript, written in Blue ballpoint pen. These manuscript sections are presented above. They are short religious invocations

The author will, in a future post, upload scans of the entire book, in hope that its creator's singular act of devotion will be perpetuated, as well as to provide material for students of the Chinese Folk religion.

In the meanwhile, if any reader may provide a more precise description of the book's contents, the author will be most delight to receive it.

以上的文章是介紹一本手抄的《關帝明聖真經》。這本書是在新加坡發現到，如果有讀者有有關這本書的知識或資料，請通知筆者。 謝謝。

Wrapping paper

This piece of wrapping paper was collected in 2015. It displays a pattern of bees, butterflies, and flowers, arranged in stripes. Such rather garish designs are common in wrapping papers 

Incense wrappers (2)

Here I feature more examples of Chinese incense wrappers. 

平安觀音香

"Peace guanyin incense"

This is a simple plastic wrapper, for holding a small bundle of joss sticks. The seated figure on top is Guanyin, the buddhist goddess of mercy. 

大吉大利名貴雪梨香

Great fortune, Great profit famous snow-pear incense. 

H&M督造

Made by H&M

The pineapple is an auspicious symbol. Its chinese name 黃莉, Huang li  sounds somewhat like the Chinese word for profit 利. 

We are told the incense was made by a company called H&M. The inscription on either side of the pineapple reads " Customers please recognize / The golden pineapple is our trademark" 

2828 

平安檀香

" 2828 Peace Sandalwood incense" 

The seated figure with many arms is the Thousand-armed form of Guanyin. 

Book cover: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms

These covers belong to an edition of the celebrated Chinese Novel Romance of the Three kingdoms. They were collected in Singapore in 2018, but were published in Hong Kong sometime in the past century.

A previous owner has written the numbers of the volumes on the set. The one on the right has 二 Volume 2 (near the prow of the boat), and the one on the left has 四, Volume 4 ( Near the arm of the reclining figure).  In traditional Chinese bookbinding, it is not uncommon for an longer work (like this)  to be split up into smaller volumes of "Fascicles"

The two covers are done in a charming style that is seldom encountered today. Both covers bear the same three lines of Chinese text: 

繡像仿宋完整版

三國志演義

香港五桂堂書局印行

(Illustrated, Imitation Song complete edition)

THE ROMANCE OF THE THREE KINGDOMS:

Published by Wu Gui Tang bookshop, Hong Kong. 

This requires some explaining. The word translated as "illustrated" is 繡像 xiùxiàng literally meaning "Embroidered". Chinese novels often had illustrations of the characters. These illustrations were rendered in line-work, and hence figuratively referred to as 'embroidery'. These illustrations comprise part of the book's "Front matter" , and would be found in volume 1 of the set.   As I possess only volumes 2 and 4, I cannot show you the illustrations (if they existed)

The "imitation Song" probably refers to a family of Chinese typefaces, in which the book is set. 

This image (and the next) are the first two pages of the fourth volume of the set. The text shown is the first part of the 91st chapter of the novel. Like many Traditional Chinese books, the text here reads Right-to-left, in vertical columns. The title of the chapter, (1st line from right) and the first word of the chapter ( topmost character in the 2nd row from the Right) are set in larger type than the rest of the novel

The text is densely set. Unlike in modern texts, The only punctuation used are dots.