Book with Woodblock Illustrations showing the Seventieth Birthday Celebration of Li Hongzhang 1892, and Two Hanging Scrolls with Embroidered Shou Characters, Handwritten note at the beginning of the book: "Tientsin 1892". Two hanging scrolls with embroidered shou characters in different variants of seal script on orange yellow silk and with brocade mounting. The characters are additionally coated with gold paste. Each scroll 190 x 37 cm. Title of the book: Book with Illustrations of the Imperial Bestowed Celebrations for the Seventieth Birthday of the Chancellor from Hefei (Hefei xiangguo qishi cishou tu). Book with Chinese Bounding, each page decorated with a frame of red dragons. Five double sided woodblock prints show the ceremony in the West Garden of the palace and the imperial procession to the birthday hall (shou tang), which is lavishly decorated with the imperial bestowed presents. Woodcuts follow showing these imperial presents one by one in detail: A horizontal calligraphy, a pair of calligraphy, a tablet with a large fu character ('luck'), and a painting of a peach tree, all done, as stated in the signatures and seals, by the hand of the empress dowager Cixi. Further were bestowed by her a Buddha of Long Life in a shrine, a fur robe, a ruyi scepter, a dragon robe and rolls of silk. Thereafter follow the same presents by the Guangxu emperor, lacking only the painting and the fur robe. After some eulogies there follow three double sided woodcuts depicting the three birthday banquets in different halls, the third one with the foreign diplomats in the 'Gordon Hall'. Besides the imperial dragon banner all the flags of the different nations are hung at the walls. Li Hongzhang is present only by his portrait. A long text of praise follows. - Former property from an old Austrain private collection - Li Hongzhang (1823-1901) was born into a family of high officials in Hefei in the province of Anhui. He was a Confucian scholar, state minister, diplomat and chancellor who earned great merits in crushing the Taiping upraising, the modernization of China, the negotiations with the foreign powers and the building of a Chinese navy. "The prestige of Li Hongzhang - Minor damages due to age