Page 93 - Christie's London China Trade Paintings Kelton Collection

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CHINESE SCHOOL, CIRCA 1860
A bird's-eye View of Macao
inscribed with topographical annotations in Chinese characters
pen and ink and watercolour on paper
33Ω x 66Ωin. (85.1 x 169cm.)
£50,000-80,000 US$62,000-99,000
€57,000-90,000
PROVENANCE:
with Frank Castle, Asian Collector Gallery, Hong Kong, 1990.
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, 1.45.
The Chinese annotations include one which supplies a termimus ante quem of 1848: 'This fortress (referring to yi pao tai, the Yi
fortress) was built in the 27th year of Daoguang reign' (1848). The view titles most of the landmark buidings of Macao, such as
the Barra Fort (Mage Pao Tai, The Mage Fort), the Fortress of San Francisco (Jia Si Lan Pao Tai, The Jia Si Lan Fortress), Guia Fort
(Dong Wang Yang Pao Tai, The Nan Wang Lang Fortress), Chapel of our Lady of Penha (Xi Wang Yang), Government House (Bing
Tou Zhu Suo, residence of Military Commanders), and outlying places such as 'Jida village' (Ji Da Cun you ci jin ju Ao shi wu li, Jida
village ten miles from Macao).

Macao was leased to the Portuguese by the Chinese as a trading post in 1557, and the present map has its stylistic origins in the
bird's-eye maps of Macao made in the 17th century, during the golden age of Portuguese settlement, when the post became a
wealthy entrepôt and way station in the trade between Guangzhou (exporting silks to Japan) and Nagasaki (exporting silver to
China). It played an important role at the height of the China trade in the 18th and early 19th centuries, as a dormitory in and out of
the trading season, for merchants and their families (not allowed to venture up to Canton), and went into decline after Hong Kong
was ceded to Britain in perpetuity by the Treaty of Nanking in 1842.

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