Page 79 - Hodroff Collection January 2019 SaleCat

PROPERTY FROM A PHILADELPHIA FAMILY COLLECTION
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PORTRAIT OF HOUQUA such as...Houqua, involved a degree of luxury...scarcely imagined
ATTRIBUTED TO LAMQUA (ACT. CIRCA 1840 TO except in the greatest houses of England and the Continent."
CIRCA 1870) Many journals of China traders record the lavish entertaining and
Oil on canvas, framed generous gifts of Houqua, who was apparently as well-liked as he
25 x 19 ¼ in. (63.5 x 48.8 cm.) was respected for his business acumen.
$40,000–60,000
Portraits of Houqua became treasured acquisitions for leading
Western visitors to the China coast in the frst decades of the
PROVENANCE:
19th century, and in Western collections became almost iconic
John Kearsley Mitchell (1793-1858)
Silas Weir Mitchell (1829-1914) images of the China trade. Lamqua (b. 1801) was the portrait
By descent to the present owners artist of choice.
Houqua (1769-1843) became the most powerful - and wealthy - of John Kearsley Mitchell was an important Philadelphia doctor who
the Chinese merchants who made up the Co-Hong in Canton. made three voyages to China as a ship's surgeon. His account of
D.S. Howard writes (New York and the China Trade) that Houqua medical anomalies he encountered there was published in 1821
"developed a reputation of almost legendary proportions (by) in The Philadelphia Journal of the Medical and Physical Sciences.
his retirement in 1834, (when his) wealth was estimated at $26 His son, Silas Weir Mitchell, was also a leading physician in
million". Forbes, Kernan & Wilkins (Chinese Export Silver, p.29) Philadelphia, known for his pioneering work on the nervous
note that "the style of life of the wealthiest Hong merchants, system and sometimes called the father of psychiatry.

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