PORTRAIT OF A FOREIGNER

This depiction, without the inscription of the Mottahedeh album pages, is otherwise more faithful to the Qianlong-commissioned handscroll (see note to lot 258). The text above this figure on that scroll has been translated as, He is a French gentleman, wearing a double-layered hat... When he sees a friend he takes his hat off, this shows politeness... He often comes in the autumn to buy and sell and leaves in the winter. (See Howard & Ayers, op. cit., p. 27.)