The Willow Pattern by Robert van Gulik

VAN GULIK, Robert. The Willow Pattern: A Chinese Detective Story. New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1965.

First US edition of this Judge Dee mystery, exquisitely illustrated by the author himself.

‘“Heavens!” she panted as she let the mangled head drop onto the marble floor. “What a dead weight the old fool is! Here, help me to push him a little closer to the foot of the stair…”’.

The Willow Pattern features the semi-fictional character Judge Dee, loosely inspired by the Tang magistrate and statesman Di Renjie (630-700).

Robert van Gulik was a Dutch orientalist and diplomat.

Octavo, pp. 184, with 15 illustrations by the author inn Chinese style; near fine; turquoise blue cloth lettered in blue to spine, blue illustrated pastedown and flyleaves, with the original dust jacket (spine ends gently rolled, jacket slightly soiled and price-clipped); bookseller’s ticket ‘Paragon Book Gallery … New York’ to verso of rear flyleaf.