Lot Essay
As China Traders made their way from the South China Sea up the Pearl River, guided by their Chinese hosts in pilot boats, they passed through first the Portuguese-named Boca Tigris and then arrived at their anchorage spot, Whampoa, part of a network of larger and smaller isles just outside Canton proper. Within these isles stood the two well-known Folly Forts, sometimes called "children's castles", and used by the Western companies for storage. This exotic scenery became part of the iconic imagery of the China Trade, appearing on a plate illustrated by Le Corbeiller (Patterns of Exchange, p. 96) as early as mid-18th century and on a Dutch armorial service (see Hervouet, op. cit, p. 21) circa 1760.