Footnotes

中國藝術家（約1770年）樂器圖二十三幅 及樂者圖一幅（一組二十四幅）紙本水粉 鏡框

Provenance: Matthew Raper (1742-1826)
Sotheby's London, 29 May 2012, lot 27
Martyn Gregory, London

Published, Illustrated and Exhibited: C.Burney, Travels in China, 1804, pp.314-315 (engravings based on drawings of the albums, published and illustrated)
Martyn Gregory, From China to the West: Historical pictures by Chinese and Western artists 1770-1870, catalogue 90, London, 2012, pp.6-10, 72-75, no.77

來源：Matthew Raper（1742-1826）
倫敦蘇富比，2012年5月29日，拍品編號27
倫敦古董商Martyn Gregory

展覽著錄：C.Burney，《Travels in China》，1804年，第314-315頁（根據畫冊插圖所製作的銅版畫）（著錄）
Martyn Gregory，《From China to the West: Historical pictures by Chinese and Western artists 1770-1870, catalogue 90》，倫敦，2012年，第6-10頁，72-75頁，編號77

Matthew Raper (1742-1826) joined the 'Council' in Canton in 1767 becoming chief of the Council in 1777. After returning to England he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1785, to which he donated meteorological records he had made in Canton between 1771 and 1774 along with a Jesuit translation of the Daodejing. He also became Director and Vice President of the Society of Antiquities and a Director of the Bank of England.

Although albums of Chinese export paintings of other subjects are known in the 18th century those depicting musical instruments are exceptionally rare and important, particularly as these pre-date the Macartney Embassy of 1792. The final painting which appears to be in addition to the set of 23, depicting 'a Mandarin concert' would have been more readily available for Westerners to purchase in Canton from the middle of the eighteenth century and another example may be found in an album collected by the merchant and diplomat Andreas Van Braam Houckgeest who arrived in China in 1758.

Raper assisted the leading British authority on Chinese music of the time, Charles Burney (1726-1814) by sending back a chest of musical instruments from China. He also assisted John Barrow (1764-1848) who attended the Macartney embassy, publishing an account of the expedition in Travels in China, 1804. The publication illustrates a group of Chinese musical instruments, not obtained by the embassy, but with the note 'an English gentleman in Canton took some pains to collect the various instruments of the country, of which the annexed plate is a representation, but his catalogue is not complete', later adding that the Chinese airs published by Barrow 'were written by the same gentleman at Canton, who made the drawings of their musical instruments' (pp.315-316). This is likely a reference to Raper.

In preparation for his book Barrow drew on two large sheets of paper with partially coloured drawings in his possession, each in a Western hand and depicting Chinese musical illustrations. These included annotation, likely Raper's, with Anglicised versions of the Chinese names of the respective instruments shown. These drawings form part of an album together with drawings made in China in 1793 by William Alexander (1767-1816) and John Barrow himself, given by Barrow's descendants in 1890 to the British Library (Add. MS 33931).