East Indies Trade – Mary Jones

Sketchbooks of a voyage on the East Indiaman "Inglis" from the Bocca Tigris to Indonesia with additional landscape views of England. South China Sea, Bombay, and elsewhere, 1842-1851



2 volumes, oblong folio (8 3/8 x 14 3/8 in.; 212 x 365 mm) and folio (12 x 8 5/8 in.; 305 x 218 mm). 73 and 34 leaves (plus several blank leaves in each volume) of pencil or pen-and-ink drawings with many coastal views, harbor views of Hong Kong and Bombay, Colombo Ceylon, Cross Island, Cape Padaran, Cochin, Mindanao, Celebes Island, Borneo and Batavia, plus figural groups, animals, landscapes and architectural views in England, many with pencilled captions; some minor marginal soiling. Contemporary half calf over blue cloth (folio), and blue cloth (oblong); edges worn, corners torn, scuffed.

A fine set of drawings evocative of Victorian travel in the Far East, the work of a talented but unrecorded Englishwoman travelling between 1843 and 1850. The ship was named for Sir Hugh Inglis (1744-1820) director and three times chairman of the East India Company.

The oblong format sketchbook seems to be the earlier of the two with several views of the islands around Bocca Tigris (where the Pearl River meets the South China Sea), a fine pen-and-ink view of the San José monastery in Macao (dated 1843), figural groups in Macao (dated 1842). Passing through Bombay in 1843 she had time for a few subjects, but quickly went on to Hong Kong where she captured a splendid double-page view of the Government House and surroundings. Views of Colombo Ceylon and Gibbet Island are followed by a return to Bombay (1844), where she evidently spent some time at the home of a Mr. Williams overlooking the port, capturing many views of the harbor and the ships lying at anchor there. Her trip then continued to Indonesia, passing through Cross Island, Cape Padaran, Cochin, Mindanao, to Borneo and Batavia. The other volume has a few Far Eastern sketches, such as a view of Malabar Point (Bombay, 1843) but is primarily devoted to British landscapes and architectural subjects, notably Brechin Castle and town (Scotland), Bar Preston Church (Kent, 1850), and Flamsteed House, Greenwich (1851).