Page 118 - Bonhams NYC Chinese works of Art March 2019

The silver cup, in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, is 1 Terese Tse Bartholomew, Hidden Meanings in Chinese Art, San
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engraved in script with the legend, “Presented to Joseph Coolidge Francisco, 2006, pp.33, 41, 79.
Esqre / as a token of respect from his friends ...” and is followed by 2 Libby Lai-Pik Chan and Nina Lai-Na Wan, eds., The Silver Age:
the same names as on the bracelet, ending with the term “Hong Origins and Trade of Chinese Export Silver, Hong Kong, 2017,
Merchants” in script rather than block letters as on the bracelet. p.44. This example has the basket weave ground, a front panel with
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Around the upper half of the cup is depicted a rowing race, one of the confronting butterflies, is set with pearls, and is described as gilt silver.
few leisure activities allowed Westerners in Canton on the Pearl River. It 3 Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of the China Trade,
was said that Coolidge was famous for his rowing. Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, p.351.
4 Ellen Wayles Coolidge, edited by Ann Lucas Birle, Lisa A. Francavilla,
Neither the bracelet nor the cup are dated. Harriet Low remarked in Charlottesville, VA, 2012.
her journal for August 15, 1832, “Mr. [Joseph] Cooli[d]ge has come out 5 Nan P. Hodges and Arthur W. Hummel, eds., Lights and Shadows
as clerk in the house of R[ussel] & Co.” He became a partner in 1834 of a Macao Life: the Journal of Harriet Low, Travelling Spinster,
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but he left Russell & Co. 1839 and became a resident partner in Heard Woodinville, WA, 2002, Vol. 2, pp.492, 587; Phyllis Forbes Kerr, Letters
& Co., and later an agent for Jardine, Matheson & Co. When Robert from China: The Canton-Boston Correspondence of Robert Bennet
Bennett Forbes arrived at Russell & Co., he and Howqua (1769-1843), Forbes, 1838-1840 (Mystic), CT, 1996.
the principal Hong merchant listed in the inscriptions, leader of the 6 Crossman 1991, p.353, plate 222, dated ca. 1850.
Canton Cohong and for many decades an important ally to American 7 Peabody Essex Museum, E79992. Gift of Mrs. Edward W. Moore,
merchants, were against Coolidge continuing in the company and 1975, to the China Trade Museum. The donor was the granddaughter
Coolidge was forced out in 1839. Is it possible that the extraordinary of Joseph Coolidge. Published while in a private collection, H. A.
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cup and bracelet were made then to save face between the Coolidge Crosby Forbes, Chinese Export Silver 1785 to 1885, Meriden,
and the Chinese hong merchants? Connecticut, 1975, p. 104, no. 58, illustrated 194 fig. 117 (b) and 195,
fig. 117 (a). It was also published in Crossman 1991, p. 364, color
A more likely date is 1841 when Coolidge was imprisoned (for two plate 121, and in William R. Sargent, Views of the Pearl River Delta:
days) by the Chinese when the British attacked Canton during the Macau, Canton and Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 1996, pp. 186-187, no
First Opium War. Much of what he owned, including a cow and a dog, 62, referencing its exhibition history.
disappeared. The hong merchants were obliged by Chinese authorities 8 The disparity between the spellings on the bracelet and those
to pay damages. As all the hong merchants were responsible for referenced in Forbes 1975 may be from the worn condition of the cup.
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damages, and their names are included on these pieces, it may have 9 Hodges and Hummel 2002, p. 492.
been an offering from them in addition to payments. These were 10 Jacques Downs, Golden Ghetto: The American Commercial
extraordinary gifts, as both the bracelet and cup were rarely matched Community at Canton and the Shaping of American China Policy,
by other gifts of such magnitude to Westerners from the hong 1784-1844, London, 1997, p. 179.
merchants. 11 Downs, 1997, p. 195.

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