Page 139 - Christie's London China Trade Paintings Kelton Collection

*109
CHINESE SCHOOL, CIRCA 1875
Pacifc Mail Steamship "City of Tokio"
oil on canvas
26º x 35Ωin. (66.6 x 90.3cm.)
£10,000-15,000 US$13,000-18,000
€12,000-17,000

EXHIBITED:
Hong Kong, Hong Kong Maritime Museum, The Dragon and the Eagle: American Traders in China, A Century of Trade from 1784 to
1900, Dec. 2019-April 2019, 3.30.
The Pacifc Steamer City of Tokio was built in 1874 by John Roach & Son of Chester, Pennsylvania. She was the frst iron ship with
a screw propeller for the trans-Pacifc trade. At 5,800 tons she was one of the largest vessels then carrying the American fag,
and was owned and operated by the Pacifc Mail Steamship Company. The company had launched the frst regularly scheduled
trans-Pacifc service in 1867 and the City of Tokio was used exclusively on the Far Eastern routes, operating from the port of San
Francisco to Yokohama, Japan, and Hong Kong, with extended service to Shanghai. The route led to an infux of Japanese and
Chinese immigrants to California. She carried 1,650 passengers and made thirty-six round trips between America and China in her
ten years of service. She was wrecked on the coast of Honshu, Japan, on 24 June 1885.
She is depicted here with Lintin (Nei Lingding) Island on her bow as she approaches Hong Kong harbour.

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