Chinese paintings, a box of 10 albums of drawings by Tingqua

PROPERTY FROM THE GARRETT COLLECTION

CHINESE PAINTINGS--TINGQUA (GUAN LIANCHANG)

A boxed set of ten albums containing one hundred and twenty three paintings of people, scenes of life, the tea industry, occupations, boats, flora and fauna, furniture and household objects. [Canton, c.1830]

10 albums, small oblong folio and folio (230 x 320mm., or the reverse), containing 123 watercolour and gouache paintings on pith paper, each mounted on paper with a pale blue silk border, uniformly bound in contemporary Chinese silk brocade, silk ties, the set housed in a contemporary Chinese silk brocade box with hinged lid, some worming, stains, wear and small loss to paintings, box rather worn

A RARE SET OF ALBUMS BY TINGQUA, also known as Guan Lianchang was the younger brother of Lam Qua and was the most famous of the Canton (Guangzhou) artists.

The 10 albums comprise: 1. Views of Canton, Whampoa, Bocca Tigris (Humen), and Macau (4); 2. Portraits of the Emperor, Governor, Ambassador, General, and their spouses (12); 3. The stages of life: birth, nursing, head shaving, school, marriage, exams, worship, at court, official travel, extended family, 60th birthday, death (12); 4. Female occupations, including silk winding, embroidery, make up, clothes making, preparing hemp, dividing thread, weaving, and painting on silk (12); 5. Scenes of women at leisure (6) and arrangements of flowers in baskets (6); 6. Studies of flowers and insects (12); 7. Studies of shells (6), and types of boats (6); 8. Fishes (12); 9. Tea cultivation (12), and street traders (10); 10. Chinese furniture and household objects (13).

PROVENANCE:

The Earls of Stanhope, sale in these rooms, 20 October 1993, lot 275