[CHINA] HAGER, JOSEPH. Description des médailles Chinoises du Cabinet Impérial de France, précédée d'un essai de numismatique Chinoise, avec des éclaircissemens sur le commerce des Grecs avec la Chine, et sur les vases précieux qu'on y trouve encore.
Paris: Imprimerie Imperiale for Treuttel and Würz, 1805. First edition. Period brown diced russia, all edges gilt. 12 1/4 x 9 inches (31 x 23 cm); [viii], xiv, [2], 188 pp., folding map, engraved plate at end of main text, illustrations in text throughout. Front joint cracked through, scattered foxing.

Dedicated to Napoleon and beautifully printed, this discussion of Chinese currency is based on sixty-four coins in the Cabinet Impérial and several other artifacts. The text includes an account of the Silk Road and the ancient Greek trade along it with China (the map illustrates this traffic). Hager was Director of the Musée Napoléon, and published An Explanation of the Elementary Character of the Chinese 1801, a work he described as the first proper study of Chinese characters, but which was met with extensive scholarly disagreement. Cordier Bibliotheca Sinica 688; Löwendahl 728; Lust 1130.

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