Decorative embroidered hanging presented to Gilbert McIntosh, the manager of the press. AMERICAN PRESBYTERIAN MISSION PRESS.

A beautiful tribute to an experienced missionary printer, passed down through his family until this year. The piece is embroidered with a presentation message in vertical characters, giving McIntosh's name in Chinese as "Jin Duoshi", a message expressing "the joy of homecoming", and four larger characters representing important Confucian virtues. Founded in 1844 in Macao, the press relocated to Shanghai in 1860, where it was superintended until 1866 by William Gamble, one of the pioneers in 19th-century moveable-type printing. McIntosh (born 1861) was appointed manager in 1891, having previously worked for five years as the printer for the Society for the Diffusion of Christian and General Knowledge Among the Chinese. He worked under the Reverend George F. Fitch in the press's premises at 18 Peking Road, Shanghai, and served as Fitch's replacement as superintendent until the 1920s. He published a number of books on missionary work, the activities of the press, and the Chinese language. Provenance: by family descent. A manuscript tag on the inner lining reads "Miss Harper, 35 Well St." McIntosh married Mary Robertson Harper in 1887. Suzanne W. Barnett, "Silent Evangelism: Presbyterians and the Mission Press in China, 1807-1860", Journal of Presbyterian History, vol. 49, no. 4. Circular silk hanging, (90 x 120 cm), Chinese characters and colourful floral decoration on central red band, blue and white decorative bands, tassels at foot in multiple colours, embellished with small metal discs. Housed in grey archival box. Occasional marking, otherwise bright and well preserved.