INK AND COLORS ON PAPER, BOUND

Details

STUDIO OF LAMQUA, 19TH CENTURY
Ink and colors on paper, bound
A China trade album of eighty leaves, the frontispiece with printed Lamqua label above script inscription in black ink, "A mon cher frère Raimond Brascassai/Canton 15 Avril 1860/G Brascassai", the first leaf a finely rendered portrait of a mandarin with script pencil notation below, "Lamqua/certifi©e ressembler par A.B.", comprising topographical and port views, silk production, boys at play, shells, fruit, birds, boats, court figures, tradesmen, birds, butterflies and insects, furniture, lanterns and firecrackers, bound in Chinese silk with marbled endpapers
12 X 9 in. (30.5 x 22.8 cm.) each leaf

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Lot Essay

Lamqua, the famed Chinnery pupil and masterful Chinese artist, is best remembered for his exceptional oil portraits of important China trade figures - including his Self-Portrait aged 52 (now in the Hong Kong Museum of Art), which can certainly be viewed as a younger version of of this album's opening portrait.
Though Lamqua's younger brother, Tinqua, was the family specialist in China trade albums, Patrick Conner explains that each studio worked in all media, quoting a visitor who wrote on 28 September 1833 of paying Lamqua $8 for "1 book 12 paintings" and adding, "...no doubt...a series of gouaches on paper in a silk brocade binding." (Arts of Asia, March-April 1999, p 57.)

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