Guan Lianchang (Tingqua), 1809-1870, A Rare View of the Interior of a Lacqueware Shop, Qing Dynasty, Daoguang Period, 1820-40 | 關聯昌 （庭呱）1809-1870年 清道光 1820-40年 廣東漆器店内貌 水彩紙本 鏡框

Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, New Hampshire, August 19th, 2006, lot 1134

This interior view of a lacquer shop, probably on New or Old China Street, is a rare record of the lively Chinese export lacquer market in the early 19th century in Canton (Guangdong). According to Carl L. Crossman, The Decorative Arts of The China Trade, Suffolk, 1991, p. 263, Japanese lacquers were usually preferred over Chinese lacquer wares, and Cantonese lacquers were considered inferior to lacquers produced in other Chinese cities, such as Nanjing. However, as described in Crossman, op. cit., Osmond Tiffany documented in 1849 that Cantonese lacquer decoration as painstaking and skillful. Chinese export lacquers were most often modeled after European designs, as evident in the gilt-lacquered tilt-top tea table shown on the left of the present example. A nearly identical example without the shaped panels above and below the central scene, formerly in the collection of Barbara and Arun Singh, and illustrated in Carl L. Crossman, The China Trade: Export Paintings, Furniture, Silver and Other Objects, Princeton, NJ, 1971, p. 168, pl. 138, sold in these rooms, January 25th, 2020, lot 1197.

China trade paintings of shopfront scenes were most likely produced in series, such as two examples in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, given by Mrs. Mary A. Goodman, and illustrated in Craig Clunas, Chinese Export Watercolours, London, 1984, p. 21, cat. nos. 3 and 4. One shop remains unidentified, as a large portion of the sheet was trimmed. The author speculates that the shop could either be a restaurant or an oil painting shop. The other painting depicts a tobacco shop, as evident by the large shop sign which reads Yanlin, or 'Tobacco Grove'. The author points to the unique execution of details in the painting such as the brickwork and paving, use of western perspective, and prominent use of apple green as signs that a not yet identified workshop was responsible for these examples. Other examples of shopfront paintings from the HSBC collection were exhibited and illustrated in Picturing Cathay: Maritime and Cultural Images of the China Trade, University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 2002, cat. nos. 80, 81 and 87, including a poulterer, fishmonger and bamboo basket shop respectively. Two further examples, one depicting the interior of a joss stick shop and the other depicting a costume shop, formerly in the collection of Ann and Gordon Getty, sold at Christie's New York, October 22nd, 2022, lots 304 and 305.