Los 8148
1878: Cover to Basil Hall Chamberlain in Yedo, Japan franked by Great Britain 1873/80 6 d. grey pl. 15 in a horizontal pair tied by MALTA / A25 duplexes (Dec 20). Reverse with SINGAPORE TO HONG KONG cds (Jan 21, 1879) and British P.O. YOKOHAMA arrival cds (Feb 5) in black. A fine and scarce cover.
Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850-1935), the addressee of the covers (lots 8149 and 8150), was a professor of Japanese at Tokyo Imperial University and one of the foremost British Japanologists active in Japan during the late 19th Century. Chamberlain had hoped to study at Oxfort, but instead started work at Barings Bank in London. He was unsuited to the work and soon had a nervous breakdown. It was in the hope of a full recovery that he sailed out of Britain , with no clear destination in mind. Chamberlain landed in Japan in May 1873. He taught at the Imperial Japanese Naval Academy in Tokyo from 1874 to 1882. His most important position was as a professor of Japanese at Tokyo Imperial University beginning in 1886. Chamberlain left japan in 1911 and moved to Geneva, where he lived until his death in 1935.
