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FROM EASTERN SHORES

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Front cover illustration: no.101Back cover illustration: no.114 (detail)

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FROM EASTERN SHORESHistorical pictures by Chinese and Western artists 1750-1970

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Martyn Gregory Gallery, 34 Bury Street, St. James’s, London SW1Y 6AU, UKtel (44) 20 7839 3731 fax (44) 20 7930 0812

email mgregory@dircon.co.uk www.martyngregory.com

FROM EASTERN SHORESHistorical pictures by Chinese and Western artists 1750-1970

MARTYN GREGORY

CATALOGUE 962016-17

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSOur thanks are due to the following individuals who havegenerously assisted in the preparation of catalogue entries:

Karina Corrigan Dan Finamore

Richard GarrettKathy Hall

Eric Politzer

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CONTENTS page

Paintings by European and other artists 6Paintings by Chinese artists 66Index 100

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PAINTINGS BY WESTERN AND OTHER ARTISTS

1. William Alexander (1767-1816)Chinese figures on a river bankPencil and watercolour, 7 x 9 ¼ in (17.8 x 23.5 cm)Inscribed ‘Sketch’Provenance: Martyn Gregory cat. 72, 1998, no.1; private collection, USA

In 1792 William Alexander travelled to China as Draughtsman to the British Embassy led by George Viscount Macartney. The embassy made its way to Peking (Beijing) and then on to the imperial estate of Jehol (modern Chengde); here Lord Macartney and his suite were received by the Qianlong Emperor on 14 September 1793. On 7 October the members of the embassy set off on their homeward journey, travelling in junks by river and canal. As they travelled, Alexander was able to sketch the various onlookers.

Studies for the two military figures and the building shown here appear together on a sheet shown as lot 36 in Sotheby’s (London) sale of 1 April 1976. The right-hand figure is one of the ‘tygers of war’, so named by the members of the embassy because of their feline appearance and characteristic postures; the face-like motifs on his shield are reproduced in Sir George Leonard Staunton, An Authentic Account of an Embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China (1797), folio vol. pl. XIX.

Illustrated on facing page

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No.1

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3. Marciano Baptista (1826-96)A panoramic view of Hong Kong and the harbour, seen from the eastPencil and watercolour, 16 ¼ x 25 ¼ in (41.2 x 64.2 cm)Verso: Detailed pencil drawing of a Hong Kong buildingProvenance: John Swire & Sons

Marciano Baptista worked initially in his native Macau. By 1857 he was established in Hong Kong, advertising in the China Mail ‘views of Hong Kong, Macao, etc., after the late Mr. Chinnery’, as well as original views of his own. As Chinnery spent only six months in Hong Kong, Baptista may fairly be regarded as the principal topographical draughtsman resident in Hong Kong during the colony’s early years. The two views shown here follow the typical principles of his composition – dark foliage in the foreground, often with figures and goats, and a broad, sunlit vista in paler tones beyond.

The premises of Jardine, Matheson can be seen above the goat on the left, overlooking Causeway Bay; the flag of their rivals Dent & Co flies above the distant praya. Directly beneath the Peak is the long range of civil service accommodation known as the Albany; to its right is Government House, with flagstaff above. The hills of Lantau can be seen in the distance on the right. For a version of this view see Martyn Gregory cat. 80, 2004, no. 2

Illustrated on facing page

2. After William Alexander (1767-1816)The temple of Guanyin near Canton (Guangzhou)Pencil and grey wash heightened with white, 7 x 9 in (17.8 x 22.9 cm)Verso: pencil sketch of a substantial building with arcades and verandahsIn a later Chinese carved frameThe scene is engraved by J. Landseer after W. Alexander in 1796 as pl. 40 of Sir George L. Staunton, An Authentic Account of an Embassy… to the Emperor of China, 1797, vol. 3, with the title ‘The Rock of Quang-Yin, with an Excavation near its Base, serving as a temple and Dwelling for several Priests of Fo’.

The members of Lord Macartney’s embassy visited this ‘stupendous rock’ and excavated temple in December 1793 on their return from Peking: see George L. Staunton, An Authentic Account…, vol. 2, 516.

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No.3

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4. Marciano Baptista (1826-96)A panoramic view of Kowloon seen from Hong Kong Island, looking north-westPencil and watercolour, 15 ½ x 24 ½ in (39.3 x 62.2 cm)Provenance: John Swire & Sons

A view of Central District seen from the east in about 1860, with the long buildings of Murray Barracks on the right; to their left stands St John’s Cathedral, shown with the tower added in 1853 but without the extensions of 1869-73. Beyond are the Colonial Offices and then the headquarters of Dent and Lindsay, two of the leading firms in Hong Kong’s early years; for Baptista’s detailed painting of these see Martyn Gregory cat. 94, 2015, no. 5. The P&O flag can be seen further to the west.

Between the cathedral and the harbour is one of Hong Kong’s earliest substantial buildings, which was used in the 1840s as a temporary Governor’s residence and which has performed many functions since then. After major alterations it became the French Mission Building in 1917, and the Court of Final Appeal in 1997.On higher ground amid spacious gardens is Government House on Upper Albert Road, completed in 1855; its main entrance faced the Union Flag seen flying from a tall flagstaff a little further up the hill. The covered hulk in line with the cathedral is the Princess Charlotte, which arrived in 1858 to serve as naval headquarters and ‘receiving ship’.

Illustrated on facing page

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No.4

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6. Auguste Borget (1809-1877)Tanka boats and dwellings on the south China coastPencil on buff paper, 3 ½ x 6 ½ in (8.9 x 16.5 cm)Illustrated: ‘Auguste Borget, peintre-voyageur autour du monde’, Musée de l’Hospice Saint-Roch, Issoudun, 1999, 157For Auguste Borget see no. 5.

5. Auguste Borget (1809-1877)A Chinese barber and customer, Canton (Guangzhou)Pencil heightened with white body colour, on buff paper, 4 x 5 ¼ in (10.2 x 13.3 cm)Signed and inscribed ‘Intérieur d’un Barber à Canton / Aug. Borget’

Auguste Borget forsook a career in banking to study art. He attended the atelier of Jean-Antoine Gudin in Paris, and became a close friend of Honoré de Balzac, with whom he shared an apartment. In October 1836 Borget embarked on a tour westwards around the world, sketching as he went; in the course of this journey he spent over ten months on the China coast in 1838-9. After his return to France he exhibited at the annual Paris Salons from 1840 to 1859. His Chinese scenes were published as lithographs with accompanying text (La Chine et les chinois, 1842), in both French and English editions.

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7. Auguste Borget (1809-1877)River view, with a pagoda on the right and a temple on the leftPencil, 10 ¼ x 19 in (26 x 48.2 cm)Provenance: by descent in the artist’s familyFor Auguste Borget see no. 5.

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9. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Three studies mounted and framed together: (a) Two mounted Europeans and a standing Indian figure(b) A hookahburdar (illustrated)(c) Masula boats in shallow water at sunsetPen and ink over traces of pencil, each 3 x 4 in (7.6 x 10.2 cm) approx.The hookahburdar sketch inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘to put the slippers... put them by’Provenance: Martyn Gregory cat. 18, 1977, no. 86; private collection

These studies would all have been made in Madras (Chennai), where Chinnery lived during his first few years in India (1802-7): see P. Conner. George Chinnery 1774-1852, artist of India and the China coast, 1993, 50-83. The hookahburdar depicted in (b) was responsible for the upkeep and presentation of his employer’s hookah; Chinnery himself became a noted hookah smoker in Calcutta.

8. Auguste Borget (1809-1877)A junk passing a wall, with palm trees at rightPencil, 8 ½ x 7 ¼ in (21.6 x 18.4 cm)Provenance: by descent in the artist’s familyFor Auguste Borget see no. 5.

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10. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Bengal village scene with a palm, domed tomb and minaret, and a goat perched on a rockPen and ink over pencil, 7 ¼ x 4 ½ in (18.5 x 11.5 cm) Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘correct... right size/dome on the mosque added’

11. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Studies of goats with a palm, chatti and nargilaPen and ink over pencil, 4 ½ x 4 ½ in (11.5 x 11.5 cm)Inscribed ‘Chinnery of India’ on old mount

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12. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Bengal: evening landscape with twisted palmWatercolour, 5 ¼ x 8 ½ in (13.3 x 21.6 cm)

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13. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Bengal: evening landscape with ruinWatercolour, 4 ¾ x 6 ½ in (12 x 16.5 cm)

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14. George Chinnery (1774-1852)A jovial ScotsmanPen and ink, 8 ¼ x 6 in (20.9 x 15.2 cm)Provenance: from an album of work by Sir Charles D’Oyly and his circle

The substantial figure with tam o’ shanter and walking cane was no doubt one of the Scottish community of merchants resident in Calcutta in the early nineteenth century.

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15. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Portrait of a young manOil on canvas, 11 ¼ x 8 ¾ in (28.6 x 22.2 cm)Provenance: by descent in the family of the marine artist Henry Moore (1831-95)The label of F.J. Harris of Bath, attached to the original frame, records that the painting was conserved in May 1964.

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16. George Chinnery (1774-1852)A pair of portraits: Henry and Margaret WoodOil on canvas, each 11 x 8 in (28 x 20.3 cm)Provenance: by descent in the sitters’ familyOld labels attached to each portrait identify each sitter and are inscribed ‘Painted by George Chinnery in Calcutta. / about 1818’

The portrait of Margaret Elizabeth Wood (1789-1879) is of particular interest in that she was the niece of James Skinner (1778–1841), the talented and cultured son of a Rajput zamindar and a Scottish soldier; James’s mother’s birth disqualified him from becoming an officer in the Company’s army. However in 1803 the charismatic Skinner - known as ‘Sikander Sahib’ - raised a regiment of irregular cavalry, known as Skinner’s Horse, to fight for the East India Company; he raised a second regiment for the Company in 1814. Skinner was eventually given the honorary rank of Colonel in the Company’s army. St James’s Church in Delhi, where he lies buried, was built at his own expense. Both of his regiments survive within the Indian Army.

The general prejudice which hampered James Skinner’s early career became more deeply entrenched in India in the succeeding decades of the century, but in the relatively liberal atmosphere of the late 18th and very early 19th centuries all three of James’s Anglo-Indian sisters married prominent military or civilian officers in the East India Company’s service. The youngest sister, Margaret, was married to Thomas Templeton, Attorney to the Supreme Court at Calcutta, and it is

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their daughter - Margaret Elizabeth - who is portrayed here; she was married to Henry Wood in October 1809 at the age of nineteen.

Henry Wood (1782-1871) attended the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich in 1797, and sailed in 1798 on the ship Good Hope to India, where he began his career as an Ensign of Engineers and rose to become Accountant General in 1822. Wood Street, Chowringhee, is named after him. He and his wife had two daughters who were sent home to England in 1820; Henry and Margaret Elizabeth followed them in 1829, sailing home on the Lady Flora, and retired to the village of Littleton in Middlesex.

In 1830 Henry Wood was called to the House of Lords as a witness in an investigation into the financial management of the East India Company; when asked what situation he had held in Bengal, he replied that when he left India he was

‘…Accountant General, President of the Bengal Bank, a Member of the Mint Committee, a Member of the Board for the Superintendence of the Improvement of the Cattle throughout India, and a Member of the Committee for the Improvement of the Town of Calcutta, and Government Agent for the Management of the Public Property’.

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17. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Portrait of John Clarmont WhitemanOil on canvas, 14 x 10 ½ in (35.6 x 26.7 cm)Provenance: Mrs Dames Longworth; Gooden & Fox, London, 1972; Willis H. Miller of San Diego, and by descent in his familyExhibited: Tate Gallery, ‘George Chinnery’, 1932, no.13Illustrated: H. and S. Berry-Hill, George Chinnery 1774-1852, Artist of the China Coast, 1963, pl. 36

John Clarmont Whiteman founded the firm of Whiteman & Co. in 1829. In 1830, as the Whitemans had no accommodation arranged in Macau, his wife Sarah (a friend of the American diarist Harriett Low) came to live with him in Canton; the Chinese authorities protested at this flouting of the regulations, but allowed Mrs Whiteman to stay until the end of the trading season. Having then agreed to rent a house in Macau he was told by the Portuguese Governor that he must leave, since the Lisbon Government had forbidden English ‘private merchants’ to reside in Macau. Eventually the Whitemans occupied one of the most prominent houses on the Praya Grande, Macau: - the ‘forty-pillared house’, later to become the French consulate, on the corner of the Franciscan Green.

After returning to England Whiteman settled at Theydon Grove in Essex, and became High Sheriff of the county in 1846. His daughter Sarah Cecilia, who had been born in Macau in July 1832, was married in 1853 to Col. James Legeyt Daniell, who had himself been born in Macau less than a year before his bride; presumably they had known each other since infancy.

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18. George Chinnery (1774-1852)A Chinese vessel in a choppy sea offshore, with a distant IndiamanOil on canvas, 8 ½ x 12 ½ in (21.5 x 31.8 cm)Provenance: by descent in the family of Janet Johnstone, née Jardine, sister of William Jardine (1784-1843)

Western merchantmen bound for Canton (Guangzhou) would call first at Macau to pick up a pilot; they generally anchored off the island of Taipa, one of Macau’s outlying islands, which offered deeper water than the silted harbours of the Macau peninsula itself. On the hillside to the left of centre can be seen smoke from a cooking fire, a motif often favoured by Chinnery.

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their ships. They carried their infants on their backs as seen here, and made makeshift dwellings out of their beached ‘egg-boats’ raised up on wooden props and stones. In the early 1840s Chinnery painted portraits of two boatwomen named Alloy and Assor; the latter was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1844.

19. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Boat-dwellings with boatwomen and a child Oil on canvas, 7 ½ x 10 ½ in (19 x 26.7 cm)Provenance: by descent in the family of Janet Johnstone, née Jardine, sister of William Jardine (1784-1843)

The boat-dwelling people of Macau were of particular interest to Chinnery; they formed a distinct ethnic group, and were typically seen with bare feet and red headscarves over blue tunics. It was they who ferried the Westerners between the islands or out to

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20. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Figures by the Chigang or ‘Halfway’ Pagoda Pencil, 9 ¾ x 7 in (24.7 x 17.8 cm)Provenance: Spink & Son, London; private collectionNumbered in ink ‘4’A version of this drawing without the figures is in the V&A collection (see Robin Hutcheon, Chinnery - the Man and the Legend, 1975, 108): it is inscribed ‘Pagoda / halfway between / Canton & Whampoa’, and dated in shorthand ‘correct November 25 1831’.

Chinnery would have passed the seventeenth-century Chigang Pagoda on his way from Canton to Macau. It stands by a small tributary of the Pearl River, and was often noted by Western sailors, as it marked the half-way point in the twelve-mile journey between Canton and the anchorage at Whampoa. Today it faces the 600-metre Guangzhou Tower across the river.

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21. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Sheet of studies of Chinese figures seated or holding up a birdcagePencil, 5 ½ x 7 ¾ in (14 x 19.7 cm)Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘all March 30th 1832’; four of the studies accompanied by the artist’s sign for ‘correct’; the lower left study inscribed in shorthand ‘when extended the whole leg and right foot is seen / under the left’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

22. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Macau: figures (one with a pickaxe) by a cave on a hillsidePencil, 5 ¾ x 8 ¼ in (14.2 x 20.9 cm)Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘fix. correct November 14th 1831’; also ‘…for this seen over… conceals the cave would be a good incident’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

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23. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Macau: boats off a rocky shorePencil, 5 ½ x 8 ½ in (14 x 21.6 cm)Inscribed and dated ‘Macao / 1825’Watermark: crowned eagleProvenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

24. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Macau: junk and Tanka boats off the A-Ma templePencil, 5 ¾ x 8 ¼ in (14.2 x 20.9 cm)Inscribed and dated in the artist’s shorthand ‘correct July 11’ and ‘fix’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

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26. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Seated Chinese figurePen and ink over pencil, 5 ¼ x 3 ½ in (13.3 x 8.9 cm)Inscribed and dated in the artist’s shorthand ‘correct fill up August 11 1841’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

25. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Macau: Mr Baynes’ house on the Franciscan GreenPencil, 5 x 9 ¼ in (12.7 x 23.5 cm)Inscribed ‘Mr Baynes’ House Macao / Decr 1829’, and inscribed with the artist’s sign for ‘correct’Verso: pencil sketch of a portrait of a family groupProvenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

‘Mr Baynes’, to whom the inscription alludes, was William Baynes, a controversial representative of the East India Company, who in 1830 took his wife to Canton in defiance of the Chinese regulations. In the distance are the Monte Fort and (to its left) the top of the façade of the church of S. Paulo; a corner of the ‘forty-pillared house’ can be seen on the left. For a similar drawing, which includes the entrance to the Convent of Santa Clara on the right, see Martyn Gregory cat. 84, 2009, no. 49.

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27. George Chinnery (1774-1852)The prow of a Chinese boat, with winch and gangplankPencil, 4 ¾ x 7 ¾ in (12.1 x 19.7 cm)Inscribed with the artist’s sign for ‘correct’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

28. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Two figures with a basketPen and ink , 2 ¾ x 3 in (7 x 7.6 cm)Inscribed with the artist’s sign for ‘correct’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

29. George Chinnery (1774-1852)A shaded food stall with two figures and a dogPen and ink, 4 ¼ x 2 ¾ in (10.7 x 7 cm)Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘incorrect’ and ‘shape of wall…’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

30. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Village scene beneath Guia HillPencil, 6 ¼ x 7 ½ in (15.8 x 19 cm)Watermark: profile bust of Napoléon wearing crown of laurels with legend ‘Napoléon Empereur des Français Roi d’Italie’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

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31. George Chinnery (1774-1852)A bamboo grove with cowherds passing byPencil with fixative, 10 x 7 ¼ in (25.4 x 18.4 cm)Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

32. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Sleeping Chinese figure at the foot of a flight of stepsPencil, 5 1/8 x 5 1/8 in (13 x 13 cm)Provenance: Martyn Gregory cat. 18, 1977, no. 116; private collection

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33. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Tanka boats setting out from the Praya Grande, MacauPen and ink over pencil, 5 ¼ x 7 ¾ in (13.3 x 19.7 cm)Numbered in pencil ‘48’Provenance: Spink & Son, London (K3 5461); private collection

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34. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Group of three figures at the roadsidePen and ink over traces of pencil, 4 x 6 in (10.2 x 15.2 cm)Provenance: P.J. Murphy: sold at Christie’s 14 March 1978, lot 29; private collection, Ireland

35. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Sketches of figures in boats setting off from the shorePencil, 7 x 9 ¾ in (17.8 x 24.7 x cm)Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘this is all corrected’ and ‘correct October 15 [18]35’Provenance: Appleby Bros; private collection, IrelandNot illustrated

36. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Sketches of a boatwoman with child on her back, and a group of boat peoplePencil, 6 ½ x 7 ¼ x in (16.5 x 18.4 cm)Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘correct November 26 [18]45’, and ‘at home’Provenance: Appleby Bros; private collection, IrelandNot illustrated

37. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Sketches of figures and groups, with a parasol held above themPencil, 5 ¾ x 7 in (14.6 x 17.8 cm)Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘correct November 26 [18]45’, and ‘at home’Provenance: Appleby Bros; private collection, IrelandNot illustrated

38. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Page of sketches of horses and ridersPencil, 9 ¾ x 8 in (24.7 x 20.2 cm)Watermark: J. WhatmanProvenance: Appleby Bros; private collection, Ireland

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39. George Chinnery (1774-1852)Sketch of a junk offshore with a Tanka boat alongsidePencil, 6 x 7 ¾ in (15.2 x 19.7 cm)

Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand ‘correct / land’ and ‘correct February 9th [18]36’; also numbered ‘54’Provenance: Mr and Mrs Bertram Seton

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40. George Chinnery (1774-1852)A boatwoman standingPen and ink over pencil, 6 ½ x 3 in (16.5 x 7.6 cm)Provenance: Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1973 (35779)

41. George Chinnery (1774-1852)A boatwoman and child with a seated vendorPen and ink over pencil, 3 ¾ x 3 ½ in (16.5 x 7.6 cm)Inscribed in the artist’s shorthand in both pencil and ink ‘correct March 19th [18]45’Provenance: Thomas Agnew & Sons, 1973 (35782)

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42. Follower of George Chinnery (1774-1852)Tanka boat offshorePencil, 8 x 6 in 20.3 x 15.2 cm)

43. Follower of George Chinnery (1774-1852)Macao boatmen with grass cloaksPencil, 7 ¼ x 6 ¼ in (18.4 x 15.8 cm)Inscribed as title, and in another hand ‘Chinnery’

44. Follower of George Chinnery (1774-1852)A blacksmith at work, MacauPencil, 6 ¾ x 7 1/8 in (17.2 x 19 cm)Numbered in pencil ‘48’Provenance: Spink & Son, London (K3 5189); private collectionNot illustrated

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45. John Corbett, RN (1822-1893)View of Sarawak Pencil and watercolours on two joined sheets, 10 x 27 ½ in (25.4 x 69.8 cm)Signed, dated and inscribed in sepia verso ‘Sarawak from the Borneo Co.’s grounds. June 1862. J. Corbett’ Captain John Corbett was stationed in the Far East during the second Anglo-Chinese War, initially in command of the paddlesteamer Inflexible. In 1875 he was promoted to Rear-Admiral, and became naval ADC to Queen Victoria. From 1877 to 1879 he was Commander-in-Chief on the East Indies station; he became a full Admiral in 1886. The ‘Borneo Company’ referred to here was founded by James Brooke, Rajah of Sarawak, in 1856. For a group of watercolours by Corbett see Martyn Gregory catalogue 85, 2009.

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47. Sir Charles D’Oyly, 7th Baronet (1781-1845)Profile portrait of Mohan LalPencil, 6 ½ x 5 in (16.5 x 12.7 cm)Inscribed ‘Mohun Lal’Provenance: from an album of work by Sir Charles D’Oyly and his circle

As a young man Mohan Lal was employed by the British Government to gather intelligence about the peoples to the north-west of India; he travelled with Alexander Burnes to Central Asia in 1832, and played a prominent part in the first Afghan War of 1838-42. He proved to be a skilful negotiator and an articulate critic of the British administration.

46. Sir Charles D’Oyly, 7th Baronet (1781-1845)Calcutta from Garden ReachPen and ink, 4 ¾ x 8 ¾ in (12 x 22.3 cm)Inscribed as title and dated 11th Jany. 1823Provenance: from an album of work by Sir Charles D’Oyly and his circle

When Chinnery came to Dacca (Dhaka) in 1808 he lodged with his friend and artistic follower Sir Charles D’Oyly, and D’Oyly practised drawing under Chinnery’s instruction. By 1812 the two men were both in Calcutta (Kolkata). Here D’Oyly’s house was frequented by Chinnery and by the expatriate community of amateur artists. The present view is along the sweeping curve of the Hughli River as it passes the city, with Esplanade Row and the domed Government House visible on the right.

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48. Sir Charles D’Oyly, 7th Baronet (1781-1845)A fashionable couple, CalcuttaPencil and watercolour, 9 ¼ x 6 ¾ in (23.5 x 17.2 cm)Signed ‘E.I. D’Oyly’Provenance: from an album of work by Sir Charles D’Oyly and his circle

Like his friend and mentor George Chinnery, D’Oyly often added the letters ‘E.I.’ to his signature to indicate that he was working in India. The two men also shared a taste for caricature (see also no. 49). The extravagantly-attired figures seen here, promenading perhaps on Calcutta’s fashionable Esplanade Row, are drawn in the manner of D’Oyly’s watercolour illustrations for his burlesque poem Tom Raw, the Griffin: a burlesque poem… descriptive of the adventures of a cadet in the East India company’s service (1828): for examples see Martyn Gregory cat. 78, 1992, nos. 39 and 40.

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49. Sir Charles D’Oyly, 7th Baronet (1781-1845)The Adjutants of Patna pay their respects to King CockatooPen and ink, 5 ¾ x 8 in (14.6 x 20.3 cm)Inscribed on lower scroll: ‘We the undersigned Adjutants [of] the City of Patna do offer you oh King Cockatoo our sincere congratulations’; and on the upper scroll ‘Caw! Caw! Caw! Caw!’Provenance: from an album of work by Sir Charles D’Oyly and his circle

D’Oyly and Chinnery finally parted company in 1821 when D’Oyly moved from Calcutta to Patna to become Opium Agent of Bihar and subsequently Commercial Resident of Patna. The large storks known as Adjutants, now an endangered species, were commonly seen in Bengal in D’Oyly’s day.

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50. European artist, c. 1880A trading junk off Shamian, CantonOil on canvas, 14 x 18 in (35.6 x 45.7 cm)On the left can be seen the buildings erected in the 1870s on the reclaimed island of Shamian.

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52. French artist, 1880Shipping in Hong Kong harbourPencil and watercolour, 9 ½ x 13 in (24.2 x 33 cm)Indistinctly signed; inscribed and dated ‘HongKong 5 mai 1880’

The covered two-decker is probably the Victor Emmanuel, named in honour of the King of Italy’s visit to the ship in 1855. Originally named the Repulse, she was anchored in Hong Kong harbour as a Receiving Ship from 1873 to 1899.

51. European artist, c. 1920Reflections – sampan studyChalks on buff paper, 10 ½ x 13 ¼ in (26.7 x 36.2 cm)Exhibited: Martyn Gregory cat. 41, 1985, no. 113

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53. Lieutenant-Colonel James George, 1782-1828Chittagong, East Bengal (now Bangladesh)Watercolour, 14 x 20 ¼ in (35.6 x 51.4 cm)Signed, inscribed and dated ‘Dec 1822’

James George arrived in India in October 1799, where he served with the 7th (and from 1804) the 25th Bengal Native Infantry. In 1811 Lt. George accompanied Governor-General Lord Minto as Supernumerary ADC on the expedition from Calcutta to Java, and he executed a number of large and scrupulously detailed watercolours of Penang, Melaka and Bogor; Minto referred to him as ‘an excellent draughtsman’.

After returning to India in 1812 he served until 1823 as Commandant of the Chittagong Provincial Battalion in East Bengal. In 1824 he transferred as a Lieutenant-Colonel to the 57th Native Infantry. In 1826 he married Charlotte Kennet in London, before returning to India, where he died in 1828.

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55. Hilda May Gordon (1874-1972)Tree study, BaliGouache, 12 x 7 ¾ in (30.5 x 19.7 cm)Inscribed verso ‘Bali (bamboo and Palm. Figure by road’Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, ‘Hilda May Gordon’, November 1987, no. 62

54. Hilda May Gordon (1874-1972) Early Morning, MalayaGouache, 6 x 8 in (15.3 x 20.3 cm)Signed and inscribed as titleExhibited: Martyn Gregory, ‘Hilda May Gordon’, November 1987, no. 34Illustrated: P. Conner, Hilda May Gordon: A colourist abroad, 1987, 42.

Hilda May Gordon studied under Hubert von Herkomer and Frank Brangwyn; in 1907 she held her first one-woman show, at the Doré Galleries in Bond Street, London. In the Great War she volunteered as a nurse, and was known in Palestine as ‘the VAD artist’. In 1922 she embarked on a six-year tour around the world, living in huts and houseboats, palaces and tents, and riding on yaks and Mongolian ponies. In India she was entertained by seven Maharajahs in succession; she negotiated the Khyber Pass, and witnessed riots, royal cremations and volcanic eruptions. She continued to paint during an active retirement, and died at the age of 98.

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57. Hilda May Gordon (1874-1972)Java, village with palmGouache, 4 x 5 ¾ in (10.2 x 14.6 cm)Inscribed verso ‘Java’Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, ‘Hilda May Gordon’, November 1987, no. 54Illustrated: P. Conner, Hilda May Gordon: A colourist abroad, 1987, 34.

56. Hilda May Gordon (1874-1972)Cremation at BaliGouache, 5 x 7 ¼ in (12.7 x 18.5 cm)Signed and inscribed as title versoExhibited: Martyn Gregory, ‘Hilda May Gordon’, November 1987, no. 57Illustrated: P. Conner, Hilda May Gordon: A colourist abroad, 1987, 42.

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58. James Hancock, 1923Sailing in Hong Kong harbour, with the launch Way FoongPencil and watercolour, 15 ½ x 23 in (39.4 x 58.4 cm)Signed and dated ‘Jas E Hancock [?] 1923’

A view from Kowloon towards Hong Kong Island. On the right is the steam launch Way Foong, owned at this time by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank; she toured the bank’s branches in the outlying islands, and was subsequently used for entertaining the bank’s guests. In 1941 she served briefly as a naval auxiliary vessel.

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59. William Havell (1782-1857)A pair of portraits: an officer of the East India Company’s army, and his wife, at Madras (Chennai)Oil on board, each 13 ¾ x 10 in (35 x 25.4 cm)Each portrait signed and dated on foot of column ‘W.HAVELL 1822’Each portrait inscribed ‘Godolphin’ verso in a twentieth-century hand

William Havell began to exhibit at the Royal Academy in 1804, and was elected a founder-member of the Society of Painters in Watercolours, which held its first exhibition in 1805. In 1815 he was described as ‘a man of unquestionable genius’. In 1816 he accompanied Lord Amherst’s embassy to China. After a shipwreck on the return journey Havell reached Calcutta (Kolkata) in April 1817. By 1819 he was in southern India; for two Madras landscapes dated 1820 see Martyn Gregory cat. 90, 2012, no. 39. By 1821 he was back in Calcutta. He remained in India until 1826, when he returned to settle in his native Reading.

The buildings seen in the background of each of these portraits identify the location as Madras. Behind the male figure is Government House, which survived until 2008. Behind the female figure is the turreted red-brick palace of Chepauk, built for the Nawab of Arcot in 1768 but now a ruin; George Chinnery, Havell’s contemporary in India, sketched a durbar held here in 1805. Despite the inscription ‘Godolphin’ on the reverse of each portrait, that name does not appear in the lists of EIC officers of the Madras army from 1760 to 1837.

According to his contemporaries Havell made his living in India largely through painting small portraits, although it seems that few have survived; for other examples see ‘William Havell 1782-1857’, Reading Museum, 1982, no. 81, and Martyn Gregory cat. 85, 2009-10, no.46.

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utilized by his close friend and colleague George Everest, who was to lend his name to the world’s highest mountain. In the course of his arduous researches Voysey suffered several bouts of fever, and died when nearing the end of a long march from Berar province to Calcutta.

For William Havell see the preceding entry.

60. William Havell (1782-1857)Portrait of Henry Wesley Voysey at HyderabadPencil and watercolours, 4 ¼ x 3 ¾ in (10.8 x 9.5 cm)Signed, inscribed and dated ‘W HAVELL Delnt Hydrabad 1823’Inscribed on old label attached to backboard ‘Henry Wesley Voysey MD of Aberdeen Asst Surgeon H M 66th Reg, on staff at Waterloo, mineralogist botanist & geologist to the great survey of India under Col Lambton in 1818 to 1824. Died in his palanquin April 19 1824 from jungle fever near Sulkea Ghat. The above Henry Voysey was my mother’s youngest [crossed out and replaced with ‘eldest’] brother. Mary Ellison’

In 1818 the surgeon and geologist Henry Voysey was appointed to the Great Trigonometrical Survey of India. From then until his death in 1824 he travelled some 8,000 miles in India, often in mountainous and in thickly forested regions, studying its mineral and geological structure; he wrote accounts of the petrified shells in the Tapi river valley, the building stones of Agra and the diamond mines near Hyderabad. Many of his findings were

61. Maung Tun Hla (1874-1946) The Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River at Thayetmyo, Burma (Myanmar)Watercolour, 7 ¼ x 10 ¾ in (19 x 27.3 cm)Signed ‘M.T. Hla’; inscribed verso ‘Thayetmyo at Irrawaddy River’

M.T. Hla, also known as U Tun Hla, was a pioneer of Western-style painting in Burma. Some of his watercolours are apparently influenced by the work of Robert Talbot Kelly, who wrote of his meeting Burmese painters during his visit to Burma at the beginning of the twentieth century.

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62. Eika Kato (1869-1942)Hong Kong Island from the harbour at night, with a junk under sailPencil and watercolour heightened with gold and white, 9 x 26 in (22.8 x 66 cm)Signed ‘E. Kato’

Born and educated in Japan, Eika Kato studied under Kubota Beisen, who travelled in the West and integrated Western perspective in his compositions. It seems that Kato came to Hong Kong before the First World War, and continued to work here as an artist in the 1920s; for examples of his panoramic views of Hong Kong, see Martyn Gregory cat. 92, 2014, nos. 23-5.

The company headquarter buildings along the island waterfront, with the lights of Central and Western districts behind them, are vividly reflected in the still water of the harbour; also illuminated are the houses along the ridges of the Peak. On the far right are the hills of Lantau Island.

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63. Eika Kato (1869-1942)Kowloon seen from Hong Kong Island at nightPencil and watercolour heightened with gold and white, 9 x 26 in (22.8 x 66 cm)Signed ‘E. Kato’

The artist’s view, taken from the vicinity of the Peak, looks north-east across Victoria Harbour and Kowloon Bay. Immediately across the harbour is Kowloon station with its clock tower, while the lights of the Hung Hom dockyards can be seen across the small bay beyond. On the right are Wanchai and Causeway Bay; then beyond the dark promontory of North Point is a glimpse of Lei Yue Mun passage.

In the foreground the illuminated streets and buildings of Central District are clearly seen. The most brightly lit is Pedder Street, leading from the dark dome of the Asiatic Building (1924), later known as Shell House, down past Jardine, Matheson (whose roof is encircled with lights) and the Hongkong Hotel opposite, and meeting the harbour at Connaught Road, where the corner tower of the General Post Office faced that of the Union Building.

Proceeding east along Des Voeux Road we find the pediment and cupola of the Supreme Court, in line with the Hong Kong Club. Further right, beyond the cricket ground, is the tall chimney overlooking the naval dockyard.

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64. Eika Kato (1869-1942)Hong Kong Island by moonlight, Pencil, watercolour and bodycolour, 9 ¼ x 25 ¾ in (23.5 x 65.5 cm)Signed ‘E. Kato Attached to the backboard is the label of Bor Kee at 58 Wellington Street, Hong Kong; the label records that Bor Kee was a maker of frames, looking glasses, cameras and shutters, and ‘double dry slides’.

The harbour as seen here includes two junks and two steam ferries, one of them no doubt an early ‘Star Ferry’. For another moonlit scene by Eika Kato, looking from Hong Kong Island to Kowloon, see Martyn Gregory cat. 92, 2014, no. 24.

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65. Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, KCVO, PRA (1879-1972)The well-belovedOil on canvas, 23 ½ x 18 in (59.7 x 45.7 cm)Inscribed on backboard with title and ‘b.f.59’In the original frameProvenance Major Sir Owen Morshead GCVO KCB DSO MC (1893-1977), and by descent in his familyExhibited: Royal Hibernian Academy, 1938, no. 49; Royal Academy, 1942, no. 219; ‘Theatre and Circus’, Art Exhibitions Bureau, Albermarle Street, London, 1955 (with labels of both exhibitions)

In 1901 Gerald Kelly went to Paris, where he was introduced to Monet, Degas, Sickert and Renoir; he also met Cézanne in Aix-en-Provence. In 1903 Kelly and his friend Somerset Maugham went to see the exhibition at the Galerie Vollard which established the reputation of Gauguin, and Kelly was inspired by Gauguin’s exoticism and rich palette.

In the summer of 1908 Kelly sailed to Burma (Myanmar), where he was captivated by the people and the landscape; he exhibited his paintings of Burmese dancers for many years after his return to Britain, where he achieved fame as a portrait painter. In 1949 he defeated Augustus John to become President of the Royal Academy, and in the course of his tenure he did much to introduce previously unacceptable ‘modern art’ into the Academy’s exhibitions.

Kelly was a close friend of Sir Owen Morshead (former owner of this picture), who was Royal Librarian at Windsor from 1926 to 1958; Kelly painted Morshead’s portrait and presented it to him for his seventieth birthday.

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67. Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, KCVO, PRA (1879-1972)The Sulamani Pagoda, Mandalay, by moonlightOil on canvas, 6 x 7 1/8 in (18.1 x 15.2 cm)Inscribed verso The Sulamani Pagoda, Mandalay’ and [above] ’or Sanda-muni?’; also ‘Jan: 1909’

66. Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, KCVO, PRA (1879-1972)Festival crowd, MandalayOil on canvas, 7 1/8 x 6 in (18.1 x 15.2 cm)Inscribed verso as title; also ’76 at W’ and ‘Jan – 30’

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69. Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, KCVO, PRA (1879-1972)Golden Pagoda, Mandalay, by moonlightOil on canvas, 6 x 7 1/8 in (18.1 x 15.2 cm)Inscribed verso as title; also ‘Mandalay’ and ‘Jan. 1909’

68. Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, KCVO, PRA (1879-1972)Pagoda at Magway, Burma (Myanmar)Oil on canvas, 6 x 7 1/8 in (18.1 x 15.2 cm)Inscribed verso ‘Pagoda at Magwé’; also ‘(Blue & white)’ and ‘38’

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70. Sir Gerald Festus Kelly, KCVO, PRA (1879-1972)The Great Wall of ChinaOil on canvas, 12 ¾ x 16 ½ in (32.5 x 42 cm)Provenance: Arthur Fuller (by 1957); given by Mrs Arthur Fuller to Leslie Day in 1985; thence by descentExhibited: Royal Hibernian Academy, 1938; Royal Academy, ‘Exhibition of Works by Sir Gerald Kelly’, 1957, no. 231 (with labels of both exhibitions)

Kelly visited China in the course of a world tour which he undertook with his wife Jane in 1936-7. For another view of the Great Wall by Kelly (but from a different viewpoint) see Martyn Gregory cat 64, 1994, no. 38A.

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72. Alexander Rattray (1830-1906)Hong Kong: near the Lei Yue Mun passage Pencil, pen and ink and sepia washes, 4 ¼ x 9 in (10.7 x 22.8 cm) Signed fully and in monogramInscribed and dated on old mount ‘Hong Kong /Near the Lyemoon Pass / July 2 / 56’ Provenance: Martyn Gregory, ‘Alexander Rattray 1830-1906, Naval Surgeon’, 1993, no. 56; private collection

Rattray served as Assistant Surgeon aboard the Nankin in the China seas from 1855 to 1858, and chronicled his voyages with precise drawings and watercolours. Subsequently he served in the Pacific and on the Australia route, during which his researches led to improvements in the diet of sailors in the Royal Navy.

71. P.M. Pearce 1965Hong Kong: Kowloon from the Mid-levelsWatercolour, 11 x 15 ¼ in (28 x 38.7 cm)Signed and dated ‘P M Pearce / 1965’Inscribed Verso ‘Rain in Hong Kong’

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73. Alexander Rattray (1830-1906)Japanese junks, HakodatePencil, pen and ink and watercolours, 4 ½ x 6 in (11.5 x 15.2 cm)Signed fully and in monogramInscribed on original mount as title, and dated ‘Augt,/55’Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, ‘Alexander Rattray 1830-1906, Naval Surgeon’, 1993, no. 23For Alexander Rattray see the preceding entry.

74. Alexander Rattray (1830-1906)Tiger Island fort, Bocca Tigris (Humen)Pencil, pen and ink and watercolours, 6 ½ x 10 in (16.5 x 25.4 cm)Signed fully and in monogramInscribed on original mount ‘China / Tiger Island Fort; Canton River / Feby./ 58’Exhibited: Martyn Gregory, ‘Alexander Rattray 1830-1906, Naval Surgeon’, 1993, no. 100For Alexander Rattray see no. 72.

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75. Lieutenant Walter Russell, RE, 1881View from the Hong Kong ClubPencil and watercolour, 14 x 10 in (35.5 x 25.4 cm)Inscribed and dated on old mount ‘Hong Kong / from upstairs window of the Club / Sept 1881’Provenance: Martyn Gregory cat. 72, 1998, no. 72; private collection

Walter Russell would have been lodging on the top floor of the first Hong Kong Club (1845-97), a three-storeyed, porticoed building located at the junction of Queen’s Road and Wyndham Street; Albert Smith, visiting in 1858, observed that ‘the click of the billiard ball never ceases’. The second Hong Kong Club building, a neo-baroque structure on Connaught Road, was occupied from 1897 until 1981, when it was succeeded by the present 21-storey building on the same site.

The artist is looking towards the twin towers of the Roman Catholic Cathedral on Wellington Street, which had been rebuilt after a fire in 1859 and was to be superseded by the present cathedral begun in 1883.

Walter Russell travelled to Hong Kong from North America, which he crossed in 1881 en route to Japan and China. Returning to Britain he reached the rank of Colonel in the Royal Engineers, becoming Commander of Coast Defences in 1907 and Chief Engineer on the General Staff in 1913.

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76. Thomas Boswall Watson (1815-1860)Macau from the LappaPencil, pen and brown ink, 7 x 10 ½ in (18 x 27cm) Provenance: By descent in the artist’s family; Martyn Gregory cat. 40, ‘Dr Thomas Boswall Watson, Physician and Amateur Artist in China’, no. 51; private collection

In 1846 Thomas Boswall Watson came to Macau to practise as a physician. In 1856 he moved to Hong Kong, before returning to Britain in 1859. In Macau he became the friend, doctor and artistic follower of George Chinnery during the artist’s last years. Some of his drawings are directly inspired by Chinnery’s work, but Watson also developed a style of his own.

77. Thomas Boswall Watson (1815-1860)Sheet of studies of Chinese figures and sampansPen and ink over pencil, 7 ¾ x 7 ½ in (19.7 x 19 cm)Inscribed Verso ‘Franciscan fort’Provenance: by descent in the artist’s family; ‘Martyn Gregory cat. 40, ‘Dr Thomas Boswall Watson, Physician and Amateur Artist in China’, no. 85; private collectionFor Thomas Boswall Watson see the preceding entry.

Not illustrated

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taking photographs. His Burmese pupils included U Ba Ohn, who travelled with Wiles and absorbed some of his techniques. During the First World War Bernard Wiles served as an official War Artist; seven of his paintings of Mesopotamian subjects are held by the Imperial War Museum.

78. Bernard Harper Wiles (1883-1966)Figures by a chinthe, Burma (Myanmar)Oil on canvas, 12 ½ x 11 in (31.8 x 28 cm)Signed

Son of the sculptor Henry Wiles, Bernard came from a family of artists. He spent the years 1911-13 in Burma, painting and

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79. Bernard Harper Wiles (1883-1966)Shrine at the Shwedagon pagoda, Burma (I)Pencil and watercolour, 30 x 21 in (76.2 x 53.3 cm)Verso: pencil sketches of the stupa of the Shwedagon pagodaFor a watercolour of this shrine from a different angle by Robert Talbot Kelly see Andrew Ranard, Burmese Painting, 2009, 53

80. Bernard Harper Wiles (1883-1966)Pagodas and trees, Burma Pencil and watercolour, 14 ¼ x 10 in (36.2 x 25.4 cm)SignedWith label on old backboard of ‘S. Mahadeo & Son’, the photographic studio established by Shriniwas Mahadeo Welling in the cantonment at Belgaum, Karnataka.

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82. Bernard Harper Wiles (1883-1966)Boats by the Irrawaddy (Ayeyarwady) River Pencil and watercolour, 15 x 22 in (38.1 x 56.4 cm)Signed and dated 1913

83. Bernard Harper Wiles (1883-1966)Burmese women by a well Pencil and watercolour, 15 ¼ x 22 ¼ in (38.7 x 55.9 cm)Signed and dated 1912

81. Bernard Harper Wiles (1883-1966)Corridor in the Mahamuni Pagoda, Burma (Myanmar)Pencil and watercolour, 19 ¼ x 14 in (48.8 x 35.5 cm)Signed

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84. Bernard Harper Wiles (1883-1966)Kandawgyi Lake with the Shwedagon Pagoda, Burma (Myanmar)Pencil and watercolour, 11 ¾ x 15 ¾ in (29.8 x 40 cm)Signed and dated 1912 [last number indistinct]

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While in Marlag ‘O’ Naval POW camp Worsley created a dummy figure out of collapsible wire and papier maché, known as ‘Albert RN’; ‘Albert’ was included in the thrice-daily headcount for four days while a prisoner made his escape. A film of the episode was made in 1953, for which Worsley created another ‘Albert’. After the war Worsley resumed his career as an artist and illustrator, and reached a wide audience with his comic strip ‘PC 49’ in Eagle magazine. He became President of the Royal Society of Marine Artists; the National Maritime Museum and the Imperial War Museum hold examples of his work, the latter including a portrait of Field-Marshal Montgomery with one of his canaries.

He visited Hong Kong in 1979 and again in 1990. For a painting by Worsley of traditional Chinese hulls under construction at Ap Lei Chau see Martyn Gregory cat. 91, 2013-14, no. 39.

85. John Worsley (1919-2000) Boat Yard, Aberdeen, Hong KongOil on board, 29 ½ x 39 ½ in (74.9 x 100.3 cm)Signed and dated 1997Exhibited: RMSA exhibition, Mall Galleries 1997 (label verso)

Shortly after graduating from Goldsmith’s School of Art John Worsley enrolled as a midshipman in the Royal Navy, becoming an official War Artist - the youngest in the Mediterranean. He was aboard the SS Laurentic when she was torpedoed in 1940, and he was on a landing craft at Reggio da Calabria when it was dive-bombed in September 1943. He was finally captured by the Germans two months later on the Dalmatian coast.

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86. George Zobel (early 19th century)Madras (Chennai): the waterfrontPen and ink and watercolour, 9 x 31 ½ in (22.8 x 80 cm)Signed ‘G Zobel’ [first initial cut off at foot]

A highly detailed panoramic view along the beach at Madras. Since there was no deep-water harbour until later in the century, passengers and cargoes were brought ashore in the ‘masula boats’, flexible craft made from planks of mango wood attached to each other by coconut fibres; one of these is shown here, inscribed ‘port boat’. Fort St. George, with its signalling mast and the tower of St. Mary’s church, can be seen in the left distance. In the left foreground a wrecked boat testifies to the power of the Madras surf.

The artist may be the George Zobel who exhibited at the Royal Society of British Artists in the 1830s, giving a Chelsea address.

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87. Chinese artist, c.1780Junks and sampans at Canton (Guangzhou)Gouache, 19 ½ x 32 in (49.5 x 81.2 cm)Inscribed in margin of old backing paper ‘Collez..e di Gius Vallardi / Milano 1820’Provenance: Giuseppe Vallardi (1784-1863), Milan

The location of this scene must be Canton, although no buildings are depicted behind the railings that flank the riverside. Resplendent on the right is a seagoing junk. These large and beautiful craft, with their finely decorated sterns, traded along the south China coast, to Indonesia and to the Philippines. They

had a double prow, with oculi or ‘eyes’ painted on either side, contributing to an impression of some mythical sea-creature, whose fins were the ship’s masts and sails. Painted on the stern is a feng huang bird, sometimes described as a phoenix, set against a background of stylised sea and clouds.

To the left of centre a scarlet official’s boat, with flag flying and dragon painted along its hull, makes its way past the variety of smaller junks, sampans and chop-boats, some carrying tea-chests. Near the far bank in the centre is a Western ship’s boat sent up no doubt from Whampoa, manned by three Westerners.

PAINTINGS BY CHINESE ARTISTS

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88. Chinese artist, c.1800A series of 12 paintings illustrating the production of cottonGouache, each 15 ¼ x 19 ¼ (38.7 x 48.9 cm)Each picture inscribed in the upper margin with a Chinese numeral and the character for ‘number’; no. 10 also inscribed 布織, ‘weaving cloth’Provenance: William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (see below)

1. Picking the cotton bolls (illustrated)2. Separating fibres from seeds in cotton gins3. Washing the fibres4. Bowing (to loosen and purify the fibres)5. Operating a spinning wheel6. Winding off the yarn7. Transferring the yarn8. Heating over a stove9. Stretching and combing the yarn (illustrated)10. Weaving cloth on a loom11. Dyeing and calendaring12. Offering the finished fabric for sale (illustrated)

These pictures were bound originally in a green leather oblong folio binding, with a paper label inscribed ‘Swallow Packet / L95 No. 82 / Rt. Honble. Lord Grenville / Chinese Drawing /…1803’. The provenance of this set is of particular interest. Lord Grenville (1759-1834) was Foreign Minister during the wars of the French Revolution, and became Prime Minister in 1806. He campaigned against the practice of slavery, and it was in 1807, while Grenville

presided over the ‘ministry of all the talents’, that the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act was passed.

As the label reveals, these paintings were carried aboard the Swallow, a teak-built packet vessel launched in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1779. The Swallow made a voyage to China and India in 1799-1803 under Captain Luard. In the following year she was sold by the East India Company to the Royal Navy and renamed Lilly.

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89. Chinese artist, c.1800An imperial audienceGouache, 27 x 36 ½ in (68.6 x 92.7 cm)

A vivid evocation of an imperial reception in Beijing. Although not an accurate representation of a specific event, the Cantonese artist has fashioned the scene in fine detail and rich colour - perhaps a reminder to European viewers of the dignified ceremony at which Lord Macartney was received by the Qianlong Emperor at Jehol in 1793.

For versions of this scene in gouache see Joseph Ting, ‘Late Qing China Trade Paintings’, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1982, no. 6; Kee Il Choi, ‘Romance and Reality’, De Cordova Museum, Lincoln, Mass., 1979, 5; and P. Conner, ‘The China Trade 1600-1860’, Brighton Museums, 1986, no.83 (a picture now in the V&A, which is said to have been brought back in c.1800 by the supercargo Richard Hill). For a version in oils see Martyn Gregory Gallery cat. 56, 1990, no.125.

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90(a)90. Chinese artist, c.1815

A pair of miniature port scenesOils on copper alloy, each 4 x 5 ¼ in (10.2 x 13.3 cm)In reproduction lacquered and gilt frames Provenance: Martyn Gregory; private collection, USA

(a) PenangThe settlement of Penang, founded by Captain Francis Light in 1786, is seen here from the roadstead, with Fort Cornwallis on the point (right), the newly-built jetty at centre, and the first few streets and houses of Georgetown behind it.

(b) Bocca TigrisA view from the south of the fortified straits through which all Canton-bound Western vessels sailed; two Western vessels are seen in the straits, while two seagoing junks lie at anchor in the foreground.

90(b)

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91. Chinese artist, c.1820An interior scene, with women winding silkGouache, 14 ½ x 19 ½ in (36.8 x 49.5 cm)

The two children included here often appear in the traditional series of scenes (and also in the ‘export’ series derived from them) illustrating the operations involved in the production of silk; in this case one child shows a tame bird to the other.

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92. Chinese artist, c.1821Set of four miniature port viewsOil on copper alloy, each 4 ¾ x 6 ¼ in (12.1 x 15.8 cm)Provenance: Garret and Sudie Schenck; private collection, USA

(a) Canton (Guangzhou): the Western hongsThe hongs (or ‘factories’) are depicted here shortly before the devastating fire of November 1822. Flying outside their respective Hongs are (l. to r.) the Spanish, American, British and Dutch flags. The American hong is seen with a new (and short-lived) façade apparently built in 1821; the bell-tower to its left probably dates from the same year. See Paul Van Dyke and Maria Kar-Wing Mok, Images of the Canton Factories 1760-1822, 2015, 82.

(b) Macau from the south-westA view looking north-east along the peninsula of Macau. On the left is the Inner Harbour, where seagoing vessels could anchor, with the distant Ilha Verde, which today is joined to the peninsula. On the central plateau is Fort Monte, with the church

of S. Paulo at the foot of the hill to its left; on the right is the Praia Grande, whose crescent of houses overlooked the shallow bay, with Guia Hill in the distance at right. On the right in the foreground is the church on Penha Hill.

(c) Whampoa (Huangpu): the anchorageAmerican, British, Dutch and British ships, most of them with their topmasts stowed for the season, are seen at anchor off Whampoa Island, a dozen miles downriver from Canton; cargoes would be transferred between Whampoa and Canton in smaller craft. The tall pagoda on the island is the Pazhou Pagoda; in the distance to its left is the Chigang Pagoda (see also no. 20).

(d) The straits of Bocca Tigris from the southAfter sailing up the broad estuary of the Pearl River, ships bound for Canton would enter the straits known as Bocca Tigris or Tiger’s Mouth (modern Humen). The channel lay between the fortified islands of North and South Wantong (left) and Annunghoi (right).

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93. Chinese artist, c.1825Porcelain shop, Canton (Guangzhou)Gouache on card, 18 ½ x 12 ½ in (47 x 32 cm)The lanterns inscribed with ‘longevity’ charactersProvenance: by descent in the family of the naturalists John Reeves (1774-1856) and his son John Russell Reeves (1804-1877), both tea inspectors for the East India Company at Canton.

Both John Reeves and his son, who succeeded his father as tea inspector in 1827, sent back numerous specimens of seeds, plants and dried fish, together with Cantonese paintings of plants and other subjects; many of these paintings are now held in the Natural History Museum, the RHS Lindley Library and the Zoological Society of London. The Victoria and Albert Museum also holds two Canton shop-front pictures acquired from the Reeves family, a full-width and a half-width cut-out as seen here, which are clearly from the same series as the present examples: see Craig Clunas, Chinese Export Watercolours, 1984, 21-2.

For a series of pictures of Cantonese shop-fronts now in the Peabody Essex Museum see H.A. Crosby Forbes, ‘Shopping in China. The Artisan Community at Canton 1825-1830’, International Exhibition Foundation, 1979; these include a ‘pastry cook’s shop’ in which customers dine upstairs (pl. 4). For pictures of a shoe shop and a tea shop in Canton see Martyn Gregory cat. 74, 1999, nos. 94 (a) and (b).

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94. Chinese artist, c.1825Cake shop, Canton (Guangzhou)Gouache on card, 18 ¾ x 8 in (47.6 x 20.3 cm)Inscribed with Chinese characters as detailed belowProvenance: by descent in the family of the naturalists John Reeves (1774-1856) and his son John Russell Reeves (1804-1877), both tea inspectors for the East India Company at Canton.

Inscribed on narrow vertical sign on right:巧珠專做葷素餅食蜜餞糖果銀絲細麵壽桃飽卷飛金攢盒各款俱全[Exquisite Pearl specialises in the making of meat as well as vegetarian cakes and snacks, honey-glazed sweets and fruits, extra fine silver noodles, longevity birthday peach-buns and rolls, and gold-flecked presentation boxes for sweets. We have a complete range of styles and shapes.]On pale green placard: 龍風禮餅 [Dragon and Phoenix Wedding Gift Cakes]On lantern: 巧珠館 [House of Exquisite Pearl]On the two small grey tins: 小種 [Lapsang Souchong red tea], and 古勞 [Gulaozhen, a town in Guangdong]On dark green placard: 巧珠餅 [Exquisite Pearl cakes]

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95. Chinese artist, c.1839Whampoa anchorage from Dane’s IslandPen and ink and wash, 12 ½ x 20 ¾ in (31.8 x 52.7 cm)Inscribed and dated in pencil in lower margin ‘View of Danes Island & the shipping at Whampoa / No British Ships now in Port 8 July 1839’

This unusually precise drawing, drawn and coloured with monochrome watercolour in the manner of an engraving, shows American, British, French and Dutch ships at anchor, and Chinese and British figures on Dane’s Island in the foreground. It gives a clear notion of the anchorage as it appeared shortly before the onset of the first Opium War and the arrival of steam vessels in the Pearl River. The pencilled inscription, presumably added some months after the execution of the picture, refers to the ‘opium crisis’ and suspension of trade in 1839, in the

course of which over 20,000 chests of opium were surrendered and ceremonially sluiced into the river at Humen under the supervision of Commissioner Lin Zexu.

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96. Chinese artist, c.1840The Dutch ‘folly fort’, Canton, by moonlightOil on canvas, 18 x 23 ½ in (45.7 x 59.7 cm)

The oval river fort known to Westerners as ‘the Dutch folly fort’ was situated on Haizhu or Pearl Island, a little downstream from the Western hongs. Seagoing junks were often anchored close by.

Within the walls were an ancient temple and luxuriant banyan trees; the island was regarded as one of the ‘eight scenic spots’ of Canton. It was incorporated into the northern quayside in the reclamation of the 1930s.

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97. Chinese artist, 1849-51A panoramic view of the Bund at Shanghai, with a regatta in progressOil on canvas, 16 ¾ x 55 ¾ in (42.5 x 141.5 cm)Literature: for a detailed discussion of a version of this picture see Eric Politzer, ‘The Changing Face of the Shanghai Bund’, Arts of Asia March-April 2005, 68, col. pl. I

This painting, which is known in several versions, is apparently the earliest detailed view of the Shanghai Bund. It would have been executed no earlier than July 1849, when the British consulate was first established on this site (far right), and before 1851, by which time Jardine, Matheson had replaced the Chinese-roofed building seen here (to the left of the British consulate) by a larger structure with a Western-style roof.

The Shanghai Regatta Club was founded in 1848. Since the umpire boat seen on the right flies the flag of Russell & Co., it is possible that the race would have been umpired by John N.A. Griswold of Russell & Co., who held the post of U.S. Consul at Shanghai from October 1848 until December 1851.

Continuing leftwards from Jardine, Matheson we see the premises of Blenkin, Rawson & Co., set back from the Bund (the first European-style building in the settlement); then Gibb, Livingston & Co., with a small white lookout platform above it; then Holliday, Wise & Co.; Wolcott, Bates & Co. (also set back); Dirom, Gray & Co.; the godowns and offices of Thomas Ripley & Co., occupying the next two buildings; Dent, Beale & Co., occupying the two buildings to the right of the Chinese Custom House; then the scarlet Custom House itself, and Turner & Co. on the far left of the painting.

The buildings ranged along the Bund in this view may be considered the first generation of large mercantile headquarters to be constructed on the site. Dating from the second half of the 1840s, they were provided in many cases with a double row of open verandahs; it soon became clear, however, that this style was better suited to the subtropical climate of the Pearl River delta than to the variable weather of the lower Yangtze. By the early 1860s most (though not all) had been replaced by buildings of a more solid and substantial appearance.

The French concession, formally established in April 1849, lay a few hundred yards to the left of Turner & Co.’s premises in this view - between the old city and the Yang King Pang Creek (Yangjinbang Creek, marked today by the Yan’an road); as the French concession was developed, so were subsequent paintings of the Bund extended southwards to include the new structures.

For other versions of this composition see E. Politzer (Lit. above); Martyn Gregory, cat. 56, 1990, no.114; C. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, 1991, 419; E. Denison and Guang Yu Ren, Building Shanghai, 2006, 47; and J. Ting, ‘Gateways to China’, Hong Kong Museum of Art, 1987, no.39.

Illustrated on facing page (detail)

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No.97 (detail)

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98. Chinese artist, c.1845An American ship at WhampoaOil on canvas, 17 ½ x 30 ½ in (44.5 x 77.5 cm)The ship indistinctly named on the prow

The ship flies the flag of Sampson and Tappan, a Boston firm renowned for the speed of its clippers. A three-masted merchant vessel can be seen in dry dock to the right of the Pazhou pagoda on Whampoa Island.

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99. Chinese artist, c.1850Chandernagore (Chandannagar): the StrandOil on canvas, 15 ¼ x 20 ¾ in (38.6 x 52.6 cm)

Located some 25 miles up the Hughli River from Calcutta (Kolkata), Chandernagore was a significant trading centre before the rise of Calcutta. From 1673 it was a French colony for three periods in its history, the longest period being from 1816 until 1951, when it became part of independent India.

The thoroughfare known as the Strand (or Strand Road) runs beside the Hughli River. At the centre is the clock tower, which was built in 1845 and still stands; the columned and pedimented building to its right was formerly the residence of the Governor, François Dupleix, and now houses a cultural centre and museum.

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100. Chinese artist, c.1850Canton (Guangzhou): the Western ‘hongs’ or ‘factories’Gouache, 23 ½ x 29 in (59.5 x 74 cm)Provenance: Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa (1795-1851), Conde de Manila, Gobernador y Capitan General de Filipinas 1844-1849; by descent in his family

Rebuilt in the 1840s, the hongs (or ‘factories’) at Canton (Guangzhou) are shown shortly before they were finally burnt down in 1856. The Stars and Stripes can be seen at the centre of the flourishing American Garden; to the right are British and

Danish flags, the latter denoting the offices of Jardine, Matheson & Co. The throng of boats in the river includes an official’s boat with its row of shields, two crowded ferries and several green ‘flower-boats’; in the most prominent of these a customer can be seen surrounded by female musicians.

The Spanish-born Narciso Claveria, in whose family this and the following five pictures have descended, served on Spain’s General Staff, reaching the rank of Lieutenant-General in 1844. In this year he was appointed Governor of the Philippines, which enjoyed a thriving trade with Canton.

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101. Chinese artist, c.1850Canton (Guangzhou): Haizhuang temple, Honam, with Sea Pearl Island (‘the Dutch folly fort’)Gouache, 23 ½ x 29 in (59.5 x 74 cm)Provenance: Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa (1795-1851), Conde de Manila, Gobernador y Capitan General de Filipinas 1844-1849; by descent in his family

The Haizhuang or Ocean Banner Temple was located on the large island of Honam (Henan) across the river from the walled city of Canton. The second British embassy to China, led by Lord Amherst in 1816, was lodged here on its return journey from Peking (Beijing); thereafter foreigners were allowed to visit the temple on any of three specified days each month. They also visited the hong merchants Howqua and Puankequa who had country estates close by.

Two halls of the original temple survive, and others were rebuilt in the 1990s; some of the existing banyan trees may date from the temple’s foundation in the early seventeenth century. The

present view from the river shows the outer or Sea Mountain gate, leading to the temple’s halls on either side of ‘a handsome paved way, of considerable breadth… composed of large slabs of granite well laid down’ (J.F. Davis, The Chinese, a General Description…, 1843, 166). The temple also contained the Sutra Printing Press; numerous imprints from its woodblocks have survived, and some of these may have been for sale in the shops flanking the gateway in this picture. The river fort on ‘Sea Pearl Island’ is seen on the left, its entrance thronged with Chinese boats; it was known to Westerners as the Dutch folly. It stood in the river between the old city and the Haizhuang Temple. Its walls were dismantled by British and French troops in October 1856.

For a group of paintings of this temple in the British Library (and a full description) see Andrew Lo, Frances Wood et al, Chinese Export Paintings of the Qing Period in the British Library, Guangzhou, 2011, vol. 5.

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The anchorage is crowded with western sailing vessels and smaller Chinese craft; a steamer can be seen in the shallower water upstream. Two pagodas appear on Whampoa Island, of which the Pazhou Pagoda on the left survives, as does the Chigang Pagoda seen on the extreme left of the picture; this marked the half-way point in the twelve-mile journey from the anchorage to the Hongs at Canton. Numerous Chinese and Western figures appear on Dane’s Island in the foreground.

102. Chinese artist, c.1850Whampoa (Huangpu): the anchorage Gouache, 23 ½ x 29 in (59.5 x 74 cm)Provenance: Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa (1795-1851), Conde de Manila, Gobernador y Capitan General de Filipinas 1844-1849; by descent in his family

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103. Chinese artist, c.1850Bocca Tigris (Humen) straits with Chinese and Western craft Gouache, 23 ½ x 29 in (59.5 x 74 cm)Provenance: Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa (1795-1851), Conde de Manila, Gobernador y Capitan General de Filipinas 1844-1849; by descent in his family

The straits at Humen, at the northern end of the Pearl River estuary, are viewed from the south, with the fortified Anunghoi Island on the right and the smaller islands of North and South Wantong on the left. The sea in the foreground, which appears untenanted in most paintings of this location, is here vividly patterened with vessels, including a multi-oared official’s boat, seagoing and coastal junks and smaller Chinese craft, together with three Western ships under sail.

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In the right foreground is the open space known as the Jardim de Sao Francisco or the Franciscan Green, with the convent of Santa Clara on its right, and the ‘forty-pillared house’ on its left. Among the latter’s occupants were the British trader John Clarmont Whiteman (see no. 17) and his wife Sarah; later it became the French Consulate. In the 1860s this open space was partly taken up by the Sao Francisco Barracks and the Clube Militar, but some of the ‘Green’ survives, an urban oasis bedecked with cork trees.

104. Chinese artist, c.1850Macau: the Praya Grande Gouache, 23 ½ x 29 in (59.5 x 74 cm)Provenance: Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa (1795-1851), Conde de Manila, Gobernador y Capitan General de Filipinas 1844-1849; by descent in his family

A view looking south-west along the Praya Grande, Macau, with a variety of Chinese and Western shipping (including a steamer) in the shallow bay; Tanka boats cluster near the water’s edge.

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105. Chinese artist, c.1850Hong Kong from East Point Gouache, 23 ½ x 29 in (59.5 x 74 cm)Provenance: Narciso Clavería y Zaldúa (1795-1851), Conde de Manila, Gobernador y Capitan General de Filipinas 1844-1849; by descent in his family

A view of Hong Kong Island after a decade of rapid building along the waterfront and in the Mid-levels. A notable feature of this picture is the activity of the stonemasons in the foreground. An abundance of granite was seen as advantageous in a fledgling

colony: it had been observed that ‘at the eastern end of Hong-Kong there are capital stone-quarries, which are worked with skill and facility by Chinese labourers, so that building is much facilitated’ (W.D. Bernard, Narrative of the voyages and services of the Nemesis, from 1840 to 1843, 1844, 248). Quarrying was recorded in Hong Kong well before the arrival of the British, particularly in the north-east of the island. The census of May 1841 indicated that 22% of the population were stonemasons, and it has been suggested that granite was the first Hong Kong product to be exported (S.W. Poon and K.Y. Ma, Report on The History of Quarrying in Hong Kong 1840-1940, 2012).

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106. Chinese artist, c.1850Seagoing junk by a cliff-top fort, with fishermen on the shoreOil on canvas, 26 ½ x 36 ½ in (67.2 x 92.7 cm)

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107. Chinese artist, c.1856Macau: a panoramic view looking west across the Praya Grande Oil on canvas, 32 x 58 ½ in (81.2 x 148.5 cm)Provenance: William Edwin Hall, Greenwich, Connecticut; Mr & Mrs Gordon Fawcett, Greenwich, Connecticut (1940); by descent in the latter’s family.

This unusually large and detailed view is taken from a point near the rocks at the eastern end of the bay. Portuguese flags fly above the fort of S. Francisco on the right, Fort Monte to its left and the fortlet of S. Pedro at the water’s edge near the gateway to the Governor’s residence. At the left extremity of the bay a defensive wall leads from Fort Bomparto to the convent on Penha Hill. The Cathedral, rebuilt in stone in 1850, rises above the skyline, with an American flag to its left; further left the church roofs of S. Agostinho, S. José (domed) and S. Lourenço can be made out. A variety of Chinese and Western vessels can be seen in the bay, including coastal junks, Tanka boats and a paddlesteamer.

The view can be dated with some precision by reference to ‘Duddell’s Oriental Hotel’ advertised conspicuously at the far right of the buildings fronting the bay. This building had served as a hotel since 1831, being successively the European Warehouse and Tavern, Markwick’s Hotel, the British Hotel, the Albion Hotel and the Macau Hotel: see Richard J. Garrett, ‘A Painting of the Praia Grande, Macau, in the Garrett Collection’, 2015, 26.

In 1855 this establishment was taken over by Frederick Duddell; he and his brother George had been early investors in Hong Kong. In June 1856 Frederick moved Duddell’s Oriental Hotel from the location shown here to larger premises above the praya. Three months later he died, at the age of 38. The business was continued by his wife Harriet, who planned also to hire out horses and phaetons, but she died only eight months after her husband. Both are buried in Macau’s Protestant Cemetery.

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108. Chinese artist, c.1860The ‘P&O.’ ship Jeddo in Sydney Harbour, AustraliaOil on canvas, 16 ¼ x 23 ¾ in (41.9 x 55.2 cm)

The P&O’s mail run to the China coast was initiated in 1845; the company soon extended their operations, and (after fierce rivalries with competing firms) had become the dominant steamer company in the Far East by the late 1850s. The Jeddo, built in 1859 for P&O by John Laird, Sons & Co at Birkenhead,

ran twice from Suez to Bombay and Whampoa before transferring in July 1860 to the Bombay-Sydney service. On 2 February 1866 she grounded on a reef near Bombay; no lives were lost but she proved to be beyond repair.

This painting shows the Jeddo in Mort Bay, Sydney Harbour, with the tower of St Andrew’s Congregational Church (opened in 1855) behind. It was painted from a photograph taken in November 1860, of which a print is held by the Sydney Heritage Fleet.

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109. Chinese artist, c.1935Shanghai: a panoramic view of the BundPhoto-based silk embroidery, 7 ½ x 33 in (19 x 83.8 cm)With the framer’s label of Wah Cheong (estd. 1902), 50 Wellington Street, Hong Kong

The Bund is seen here shortly before building was halted by war, but showing some of its most celebrated buildings recently completed. On the right is the massive block of Broadway Mansions (1934). Across the Garden Bridge to its left is the two-storey British Consulate, with the tower of the Capitol Building (1928) seen behind. Near the centre is the Cathay Hotel (now the Peace Hotel) with its pyramidal roof (1929); to its right is the pinnacled Concordia Club, by this time owned by the Bank of China, whose new building on the site would be commenced in 1936.

The two conspicuous buildings further left are the Custom House (1927), its clock tower dominating the Bund, and to its left the domed Hongkong and Shanghai Bank (1923). On the far left is the tower and weather vane of the Union Building (1916); now ‘Three on the Bund’, it was the first of the several buildings on the Bund to be designed by architects Palmer and Turner.

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110. Lamqua (fl. 1820-1860) or studioPortrait of a Cantonese ‘hong merchant’ in a fur coatOil on canvas, 29 ½ x 23 ½ in (75 x 59.7 cm)Inscribed on back of canvas ‘JKW Johnstone / 26th April / 1834’Provenance: by descent in the family of Janet Johnstone, née Jardine, sister of William Jardine (1784-1843)

Lamqua (Guan Qiaochang), the best known Cantonese ‘export’ artist of the middle years of the nineteenth century, had a large studio in China Street, in which paintings in various styles and media were produced. The upper floor, however, was his own domain, and here he painted oil portraits of Chinese, Parsi and Western sitters in the ‘romantic’ manner introduced to the China coast by George Chinnery in 1825.

Lamqua’s studio was responsible for portraits of several of the ‘hong merchants’ with whom the Western merchants conducted their business, including Howqua (see no. 111) and Mowqua. Although the present merchant has not been identified, a version of this portrait is illustrated (as by George Chinnery) in G.H.R. Tillotson, Fan Kwae Pictures – The Hongkong Bank Art Collection, 1987, 14-15; here he is said to have ‘a luminous intelligent face’.

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111. Lamqua (fl. 1820-1860) or studioPortrait of the Cantonese merchant HowquaOil on canvas, 13 x 11 in (33 x 28 cm)

Wu Bingjian (1769-1843), known to Westerners as Howqua or Houqua, was for many years the leading figure among the hong merchants with whom the Western traders had dealings. He formed an especially close alliance with the American merchants in Canton.

Howqua was portrayed in oils by Chinnery in the late 1820s, and subsequently by Lamqua and other Chinese export artists; a number of portraits of Howqua, depicting him at differing ages and in various sizes, were brought back to Europe and the United States in the middle years of the century. Lamqua followed Chinnery’s example in presenting Howqua with his body turned to the side (an innovation in Chinese export painting) and in a sombre interior, relieved by the vivid colours of Howqua’s silk collar, rank-badge and official hat.

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112. Kam Cheong Ling (1911-1991)Coastal junks in the bayPencil and watercolour, 10 ¾ x 14 ½ in (27.3 x 36.8 cm)Signed

Kam Cheong Ling was born at Xinhui in Guangdong province, and came to Macau in 1954; he was a student of the watercolour artist Choi Veng Cheng, and one may also discern in his fluid watercolour style the influence of the Macau-based artist George Smirnoff. Until the 1970s he taught at the Fine Arts Academy in Macau, which he had been instrumental in founding. The Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau in Macau held an exhibition of his work in 2003. For other watercolours by Kam Cheong Ling see Martyn Gregory cat. 87, 2011-12, no. 106; cat. 91, 2013-4, nos. 71-8; and cat. 94, 2015-16, nos. 101-2.

113. Kam Cheong Ling (1911-1991)Small craft off the south China coast at sunsetPencil and watercolour, 10 ¾ x 14 ½ in (27.3 x 36.8 cm)SignedFor Kam Cheong Ling see the preceding entry.

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114. Spoilum (fl. 1770-1805) Captain John Cranstoun (1745-1788)Reverse-glass painting, 12 ½ x 10 ¼ in (31.7 x 26 cm)Provenance: by descent in the family of the sitter, whose family archives include a note of 1872 identifying the sitter

John Cranstoun (known as Jack) was the eldest son of the Rev John Cranstoun of Ancrum (1706-1790) and Ann, daughter of the Rev J. Gilchrist. He entered the East India Company’s service in 1760, and made several voyages to China - as 3rd Mate on the Clive in 1767-9, as 2nd Mate on the Duke of Gloucester in 1770-1, and as 2nd Mate on the Royal Charlotte in 1772-5. He was Captain of the Earl of Chesterfield at the time of his death in 1788 at St Helena.

A letter written by Cranstoun dated 26 December 1771 records that at this time he was about to set sail from London on the Royal Charlotte bound for China. On the back of this letter the following note was added:

‘John Cranston the author of this and several other letters is the same whose picture or likeness rather painted on mirror by the Chinese is in my possession - he was the favourite and beloved brother of his beautiful and (...) sister Ann or Annie Cranston, who it was said died of a broken heart when she heard of the death of this much loved brother who died at St Helena on his passage home to his native country. Ellen C. Gordon February 1872.’

Although best known for his portraits in oils on canvas, the Cantonese artist known as Spoilum also painted reverse-glass portraits of Western merchants, standing or seated, often (as here) with a Chinese river landscape beyond. His earliest recorded work is a reverse-glass portrait of Captain Thomas Fry, dated 1774. For comparable examples see Martyn Gregory cat. 79, 2003, no. 90, and cat. 91, 2013, no. 79; another example is held by the Lady Lever Art Gallery, Port Sunlight (LL 8824).

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115. Spoilum (fl. 1770-1805) Portrait of a young manOil on canvas, 23 ½ x 18 in (59.7 x 45.8 cm)Provenance: a Hollis, New Hampshire collection

The artist known to Westerners as Spoilum (or sometimes Spillem or Spilum – see Martyn Gregory cat. 87, 2011-12, no. 108) is one of the few Cantonese export artists whose works in oils on canvas can be identified by a distinctive style. In the 1770s Spoilum was producing reverse-glass portraits (see preceding entry), but in the following decade he began to paint portraits on canvas, as seen here. The background sky is an unusual element in Spoilum’s work on canvas; for another example see his portrait of Captain Benjamin Smith, Martyn Gregory cat. 74, 1999, no. 114. For other examples of Spoilum’s portraiture see Carl Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, 1991, ch.1, and P. Conner, ‘The Enigma of Spoilum and the origins of China Trade Portraiture’, The Magazine Antiques, March 1998, 418-25.

Illustrated on facing page

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No. 115

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116. Sunqua (fl. 1830-70)The Hongs of Canton (Guangzhou)Oil on canvas, 18 x 23 ½ in (45.7 x 59.7 cm)Inscribed ‘SUNQUA’ lower right ‘Provenance: private collection, UK

The Western hongs are depicted shortly before the first Opium War of 1839-42, with French, American, British and Dutch flags aloft. In the fenced compound in front of the British hong a garden, begun in the early 1830s, is now flourishing. On the quayside are Chinese vendors and barbers with their customers, and Parsis in their turbans and white robes. At the water’s edge is the red woodwork of a custom house; coloured posters are displayed on the wall near the entrance to China Street to the left of the American flag.

In the river numerous boat-people appear in their ‘egg-boats’ clustered by the shore. Four Westerners in tall hats are rowing a small boat, while others manoeuvre a sailing boat, beneath which is a green-latticed ‘flower boat’ with two finely-dressed women aboard. Close by is a streamlined and multi-oared official’s boat. In the left foreground is a crowded ferry, with figures operating two long oars at the stern.

Sunqua is recorded in 1837 as having premises in China Street, Canton. Subsequently he worked in Macau, and by August 1857, when his studio was featured in the Illustrated London News, his business was established in Hong Kong. A version of the present painting, now in the Guangdong Museum, Guangzhou, is inscribed with the Chinese characters for ‘Zhang Shungu’, indicating that ‘Zhang’ was the Chinese name of the artist known to Westerners as Sunqua.

Illustrated on facing page

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No.116

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117. Tingqua (fl. 1840-70) or studio The production of tea - from planting the seeds to weighing the chests for exportGouache, 24 x 36 ½ in (61 x 92.7 cm)Inscribed in Chinese characters (upper centre) ‘Dealers in various kinds of celebrated teas’; the inscriptions in black on red at either side, typical of New Year banners, allude to continuing good fortune and prosperity in trade. A version of this picture is recorded, almost identical in most respects but with the signature ‘Tingqua’ painted at the foot of the picture.

The Cantonese artist Guan Lianchang, known to Westerners as Tingqua, had his studio at 12, New China Street. His brother was the well-known Guan Qiaochang or Lamqua (see nos. 110 and 111), but it seems that the two brothers did not compete directly with each other: it was recorded in 1847 that ‘Lamqua is chiefly employed on portraits, while Tingqua confines himself to miniatures and sketches’ (Chinese Repository XVI, May 1847, no. 5, 27). One of his best-known compositions is an interior view of an ‘export’ artist’s premises in Canton, with a blue plaque (similar to that seen here) above the entrance, inscribed in some versions with Chinese characters and in others with ‘Tingqua’ in Western script.

Illsttrated on facing page

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No.117

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INDEX OF LOCATIONS

(page numbers)

Bali ... ... ... ... ... 43, 44Bocca Tigris ... ... ... 57, 69, 71, 83Burma (Myanmar) ... ... 48, 52-4, 60-63Calcutta (Kolkata) ... ... 18, 20-21, 37-8Canton (Guangzhou) ... 8, 12, 25, 40, 66, 71, 72-3, 75, 80, 96-7Chandernagore.. ... ... 79Chittagong . ... ... ... 42Great Wall of China.. ... 55Honam ... ... ... ... 81Hong Kong ... ... ... 8-12, 41, 45, 49-51, 56, 58, 64, 105Hyderabad. ... ... ... 48Japan ... ... ... ... ... 57Java ... ... ... ... ... 44Madras (Chennai) ... ... 14, 46-7, 65Macau . ... ... ... ... 22-4, 26-35, 59, 71, 84, 87 Malaya ... ... ... ... 43Patna ... ... ... ... ... 39Penang ... ... ... ... 69Sarawak ... ... ... ... 36Shamian ... ... ... ... 40Shanghai ... ... ... ... 76-7, 89Sydney ... ... ... ... 88Whampoa (Huangpu) ... 71, 74, 78, 82

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