Text: 2 engraved portrait frontispieces, of Emperor Tchien Lung in volume I and the Earl Macartney in volume II), 1 plate, 26 vignette illustrations after William Alexander and others. Atlas: 44 engraved views, plans, plates, charts or maps (including 1 large folding world map, 6 double-page plates, maps or charts, 3 plates of natural history subjects, 25 plates of views). Unobtrusive water stain to the first few pages of Vol. I & II, otherwise clean & crisp. [Cordier 2381 - 2383; Lust 545 & 547; Morrison I, 696 - 697] 
 
George Macartney, 1st Earl Macartney (1737-1806) was dispatched to Beijing in 1792 traveling via Madeira, Tenerife, Rio de Janeiro, the Cape of Good Hope and Indonesia. He was accompanied by Staunton, and a large retinue, including Staunton's 11-year-old son who was nominally the ambassador's page. On the embassy's arrival in China it emerged that the 11-year-old was the only European member of the embassy able to speak Mandarin, and thus the only one able to converse with the Emperor. The embassy, the first such British embassy to China, had two objectives: the first to register with the Emperor British displeasure at the treatment that the British merchants were receiving from the Chinese, the second to gain permission for a British minister to be resident in China. The first objective was achieved, the second was not. Macartney was twice granted an audience with the Emperor and in December 1793 he was sumptuously entertained by the Chinese viceroy in Canton, but returned to England via Macao and St. Helena, arriving in September 1794. Although the maps and plates were prepared for publication by G. Nicol in London in 1796, they were not issued until 1798, and thus the atlas is not always found with the text volumes. Staunton's son, Sir George Thomas Staunton (1781-1859) accompanied him to China, remained in Canton until 1817, and was a member of Lord Amherst's second British Embassy to Peking in 1816-17.