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Attributed to Namcheong (Chinese, active circa 1840-1870) Portrait of the Thomas Hunt & Co. Ship Challenge image 1
Attributed to Namcheong (Chinese, active circa 1840-1870) Portrait of the Thomas Hunt & Co. Ship Challenge image 2
Lot 41

Attributed to Namcheong
(Chinese, active circa 1840-1870)
Portrait of the Thomas Hunt & Co. Ship Challenge

19 August 2025, 12:00 EDT
Skinner Marlborough, Massachusetts

US$4,000 - US$6,000

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Attributed to Namcheong (Chinese, active circa 1840-1870)

Portrait of the Thomas Hunt & Co. Ship Challenge
unsigned
oil on canvas in original carved tropical hardwood frame
26 1/2 x 39 3/8 in.
framed 34 x 47 in.

Footnotes

Provenance
By descent from Captain James P. Cook (1821-92) of Salem, Massachusetts, through his daughter Mary Abigail Cook Sutton (1860-1945), who was born in Whampoa (Huangpu), China.

Literature
Thomas Hunt & Co. (active c. 1845-68) was a chandlery and mercantile firm established at Whampoa (Huangpu), by Captain Thomas Hunt (1805-70) of Salem, Massachusetts. In 1854, Hunt sold the firm to James B. Endicott (1814-70) and his brother-in-law, Captain James P. Cook, who opened branch offices in Hong Kong and Shanghai before closing the business in 1868. See Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade (Woodbridge: Antique Collectors' Club, 1991), p. 139-45; for examples of ship portraits that Hunt and Cook commissioned from the Whampoa artist Namcheong (active 1845-70), flying identical company flags, see color plates no. 47-8.

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