25 gravures d'après Giuseppe Castiglione représentant les conquêtes de l'empereur de Chine Chine, dynastie Qing, époque Qianlong (1736-1795)

comprenant deux gravures tirées de la série de seize gravures de la campagne du Turkestan de l'Est (1755-1759), neuf  gravures tirées de la série de seize gravures de la campagne du Jinchuan (1771-1776), neuf gravures tirées de la série de douze gravures de la série de la campagne contre Taiwan (1787-1788) et quatre gravures tirées de la série des seize gravures de la campagne contre les Miao au Hunan (1795), 19 gravures encadrées sous verre, six non encadrées

On July 13th 1765, by Imperial decree, the Qianlong emperor ordered that sixteen drawings made by Castiglione and three other Jesuits of his victories in Central Asia should be sent to Europe for engraving in copper, the copper plates together with one hundred sets of engravings to be sent to him in Beijing. They were, in fact, sent to Paris where the Royal engraver Cochin was put in charge of this order. The work of engraving was distributed to the best French artists of the day. The engravings reached China in 1775. None of the original engravings were kept in France and in 1788 helman published a new set of the conquest engravings in reduced form. Subsequently, Chinese artists were instructed to produce copper engravings of further Imperial victories on the frontiers of Tibet, in Formosa, in Nepal, Annan, Yunnan, Hunan and again in Turkestan.

The present lot comprises alltogether 25 engravings taken from the first set of engravings orderered in 1765, and three sets subsequently produced by Chinese artists to commemorate later victories. Amon them are two engravings taken from the series of sixteen engravings of the  East Turkestan campaign (1755-1759), nine engravings taken from the series of sixteen engravings of the Jinchuan campaign (1771-1776), nine engravings taken from the series of twelve engravings of the campaign against Taiwan (1787-1788), and four engravings taken from the series of sixteen engravings of the campaign against the Miao in Hunan (1795).