Page 134 - Bonhams Catalog Cohen and Cohen Jan 24, 2023 New York

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A VERY RARE DOCUMENTARY FAMILLE ROSE ‘UNITED the ‘Co-Hong’ (a group of senior Cantonese merchants), whom the
STATES HONG AT CANTON’ BOWL archives record shared equally the handsome profits and serious
Qianlong period, circa 1787-88 liabilities of dealing with unpredictable and duplicitous foreigners.
Boldy and precisely enameled around the whole exterior depicting the According to these bowls, our most reliable record, each warehouse
continuous terrace of ‘Hongs’ (Western waterfront trading warehouses) building proudly flies the flag of its respective nation, including the flags
at Canton (Guangzhou), the Western style arcaded two-story riverside of Denmark, the Philippines, France, America, Sweden, Britain, and
buildings showing the flags of France, Denmark, the Philippines, the Netherlands
America, Sweden, Britain and The Netherlands and one overpainted
American flag between the British and Dutch flags, the buildings The earliest bowl depicting panels of ‘Hongs’ apparently dates from
and the private fenced areas in front, dotted with small figures of 1765, while versions with the more dramatic continuous ‘Hongs’
promenading and relaxing Western merchants. panorama entirely surrounding the bowl (such as the present lot) date
14in (35.5cm) diam from about 1775 onwards. The changing architecture of this terrace
of warehouses can be plotted from a careful study of these bowls and
$60,000 - 80,000 from paintings which were also popular at the time, illustrated in great
detail by Paul A. Van Dyke and Maria Kar-wing Mok, 2016, Images of
乾隆時期 約1787-88年 珍稀為美國市場製粉彩紀年《廣州美行》大 the Canton Factories 1760—1822.
酒碗
This bowl is even more important as a documentary record because
Published: of an apparently unique feature of its design and final appearance: this
Cohen & Cohen, Take Two!, Antwerp, 2017, pp. 130-131, no. 56 (prior bowl bears between the British and the Dutch flags, a pentimento of
to the discovery of the ‘overpainted’ flag) the American flag in its location prior to 1787. The bowl appears to
Cohen & Cohen, The Elephant in the Room, Antwerp, 2019, pp. 50- have been modified by removing the original enameling and relocating
53, no. 20 the flag to a position in front of the newly rented Hong, the evidence
implies the bowl was in the process of enamaling when the change of
出版： location was made, neccessitating a modification of the design mid-
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Take Two!》，安特衛普，2017年，頁 production.
130-131，圖版編號56（寫於發現《幽靈旗》之前）
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《The Elephant in the Room》，安特衛 Yet another very unusual feature of this bowl is that it depicts the new
普，2019年，頁50-53，圖錄編號20 Philippine flag for The Real Compañia de Fliipinas (Royal Philippine
Company) which had very recently been founded in Madrid in March
‘Hongs’ were the Western trading offices (known in the 17th and 18th 1785, under the direct patronage of King Charles III of Spain.
century as ‘factories’) where ‘business factor’s’ worked and lived,
restricted to within a quarter mile strip of land along the Pearl River. For a senior (and wealthy, for these were surely expensive) East India
Merchants rented these Western-style buildings and were confined merchant trader, a richly enameled ‘Hong’ bowl of this kind must
to this area during the trading season and through which funneled have been the ultimate souvenir of the long and dangerous trading
all Western trade with China for a century and a half. It contained journey between China and Europe or America. And yet very few of
the thirteen factories or Hongs which controlled the trade with all the these splendid bowls have survived, and almost all are published in
Western Nations. public collections. A bowl with this view was surely the finest available
memento of this short riverside stretch at the top of the Pearl River,
Reluctant to let brash, hard-drinking rumbustious Western traders which became after 1715 the most important (and probably the most
and sailors into the recreational areas of the more tranquil walled city lucrative) Western trading area in the whole of Asia.
of Canton, the Viceroy of Guangzhou Province (no doubt instructed
by the emperor) laid down laws that Westerners could only reside For other examples from this date, see the bowl in the Peabody Essex
and trade for a limited period each year in their national ‘Hong’, and Museum, illustrated by Sargent 2012, no. 241, pp.437-8), and others
secondly that warehouses could not be purchased freehold but had to variously in Historic Deerfield; The Reeves Collection, Washington and
be rented annually. The practical arrangements for each year’s trading Lee University; The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design;
season were in the hands of a local Chinese trading organization, while another was sold at Sotheby’s London on July 13, 2005, lot 673;
and one at Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, NH, on August 10, 2008,
lot 593.

132 | BONHAMS