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Lot Essay
A fire broke out in a bakery in Canton on 2 November, resulting in the destruction of thousands of buildings, including the western factories and the warehouses of the Hong merchants Howqua II and Mowqua II.
For a variant of the present view, see the slightly larger bodycolour, probably by the same Chinese hand, in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts (gift of Mr Lewis Lapham E79,459.5), illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Views of the Pearl River Delta, Macau, Canton and Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum, 1997 [Hong Kong, 2002], pp.178-179, no. 58 (one of a series of five paintings depicting the Hongs before, during, and after the fire). The western factories were rebuilt in 1824.
For a variant of the present view, see the slightly larger bodycolour, probably by the same Chinese hand, in the collection of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts (gift of Mr Lewis Lapham E79,459.5), illustrated in the exhibition catalogue Views of the Pearl River Delta, Macau, Canton and Hong Kong, Hong Kong Museum of Art and the Peabody Essex Museum, 1997 [Hong Kong, 2002], pp.178-179, no. 58 (one of a series of five paintings depicting the Hongs before, during, and after the fire). The western factories were rebuilt in 1824.