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Chinese School, 19th century An exceptionally rare documentary album containing views of official buildings in Canton
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Chinese School, 19th century
Ink and watercolour on paper, 28 paintings depicting views of various official buildings in Canton including the Viceroy's Palace, the Treasurer's Office and the Office where Females of Bad Character are Punished, all mounted into a loose-leaf album labelled 'Public Offices at Canton. Book IV'. Each painting 45.2cm x 32.2cm (17¾in x 12½in)
Footnotes
Provenance: Lorna Bruce (died 1949), who travelled frequently in China: but this was probably a gift from an English friend so not acquired directly by her in China
十九世紀 中國畫派 廣東官邸圖 冊頁二十八開
來源:Lorna Bruce(卒於1949年), 經常來往於中國:冊頁可能是一位英國友人贈送的禮物,因此並非在中國直接得於她本人
This extraordinary album is an unpublished survivor of the decades when Canton had become a major visiting point on the south China coast for Westerners, but before photography had been invented. It is most likely that the album dates to the second quarter of the 19th century; by that point many Westerners were commissioning or buying rather more accurate views of the cities they had visited during their trip to China, Canton being of course the most important.
This remarkable album however appears to be unique in that it depicts accurately and dispassionately important buildings which represented the core of the Government administration for the province in Canton. Although many views survive of Canton during the period 1800-1860, very many are standard depictions of the waterfront outside the city walls, where the Western trading Hongs occupied Western-style warehouses for many decades. This album is both apparently more accurate in the representations of these individual administration buildings, and rarer in that probably far fewer Westerners would have seen many of them, since most were deep in the heart of the largely inaccessible Chinese city.
A full list of the buildings depicted in this album can be obtained by contacting the Chinese department in New Bond Street.


