Manuscript Faux Chinese Dance Card Dated April 11, 1898

1898. NA. Good. Small folded card, with a pen-and-ink watercolored illustration of a Chinese dancemaster, or so we assume he is meant to be, on the front. Above him, in red letters, is written PROGRAMME. Much of the lettering is in red ink, with the letters done in such a manner as to appear in a quick glance to be Chinese characters. The camouflage is sufficiently effective to make the English words and the numbers tricky and difficult to read without concentrated scrutiny, and one word, the short captioning below the dancemaster, we haven't been able to decipher at all, although it would appear that this is written in a vertical line when one turns to card sideways. Inside on the right is a list of 21 dances, heavy on valses and polkas, and on the right, under the word, "Engagements", are ruled lines for the holder of the card to write in a name for each dance. The back, or fourth page, gives the date. We are confident this is from April 1898, but we are not completely sure the date was to have been the 11th, not that this is important. The card was not used -- there are no names written in. This suggests to us that this was a manuscript draft intended to be printed, since it would seem highly improbable that someone would make many manuscript copies to distribute to the dance's invitees. The card is a charming trifle, and a most unusual artifact of the Western, and specifically English, fascination and attraction the the East. The card, when closed, measures 97 by 57 mm, and it is obviously double the width when opened. There is a considerable amount of soiling on the card throughout, with no diminishment of its visual appeal.