Rhyanon Demery
Head of Sale
Lot 82*
Chinese Schoollate 19th CenturyAmoy
26 February 2020, 13:00 GMT
London, KnightsbridgeSold for £17,562.50 inc. premium
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Leo Webster
Senior Specialist
Chinese School, late 19th Century
Amoy
oil on canvas
45.7 x 78.1cm (18 x 30 3/4in).
oil on canvas
45.7 x 78.1cm (18 x 30 3/4in).
Footnotes
Provenance
With Paul Mason Gallery, London.
Acquired from the above at the Grosvenor House Antiques Fair, London, by the present owner in 1987.
With the signing of the Treaty of Nanking in 1842, the treaty that ended the First Opium War, Amoy, now Xiamen, would become one of the five treaty ports in Southeast Asia. The importance of this port for trade is symbolised by the array of international flags situated along the waterfront. In particular, its location - just north of Canton at the mouth of the Nine Dragon River - led to its prominence in the 19th century tea trade. The present view has been taken from the island of Gulangyu, a foreign enclave at the time of this work's completion. An array of Chinese and Western ships can be seen, including a number of distinctive Amoy junks with an eye painted on their bows.