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Lot Essay
The picture shows the fire approaching its height, having reached the hongs, with Hog Lane already ablaze just to the side of the grand Palladian frontage of the English factory. All along the hongs, stores are being evacuated to the quayside, where sampans and lighters are being loaded.
'The first fire to be commemorated in Chinese 'export' paintings, it seems, was the disastrous fire of 1-2 November 1822, which was believed to have left 50,000 people homeless. The fire began in a cake shop in the suburbs a mile and a half north of the factories. At 9.30 in the evening of 1 November, news reached the factories that a major fire was spreading. The British factory sent out its fire engines to lend assistance, but no water could be obtained. At about midnight the wind shifted from north-east to north, and it became apparent that the factories were in danger. A message was sent to Whampoa ordering up sailors from the Western ships; first to arrive, at 7 a.m. on 2 November, were the Americans, whose anchorage lay nearest to Canton. The British arrived half an hour later. The fire raged all that day, and continued into the following night. The ruins were still smouldering the following morning, when armed boats were sent to protect such valuables as remained ... A large part of the western suburbs of Canton was devastated by this outbreak. Thousands of Chinese shops were destroyed, together with the warehouses of the hong merchants, of whom Mowqua and Puiqua suffered most heavily. Twenty-two people were reported to have been killed, either in the fire or in the rush to escape the flames. Within a week of the outbreak, the British had resumed trade, having moved most of their factory into a warehouse belonging to the hong merchant Consequa.' (P. Conner, The Hongs of Canton, Western Merchants in South China 1700-1900, as seen in Chinese export paintings, London, 2009, pp.90-91).
'The first fire to be commemorated in Chinese 'export' paintings, it seems, was the disastrous fire of 1-2 November 1822, which was believed to have left 50,000 people homeless. The fire began in a cake shop in the suburbs a mile and a half north of the factories. At 9.30 in the evening of 1 November, news reached the factories that a major fire was spreading. The British factory sent out its fire engines to lend assistance, but no water could be obtained. At about midnight the wind shifted from north-east to north, and it became apparent that the factories were in danger. A message was sent to Whampoa ordering up sailors from the Western ships; first to arrive, at 7 a.m. on 2 November, were the Americans, whose anchorage lay nearest to Canton. The British arrived half an hour later. The fire raged all that day, and continued into the following night. The ruins were still smouldering the following morning, when armed boats were sent to protect such valuables as remained ... A large part of the western suburbs of Canton was devastated by this outbreak. Thousands of Chinese shops were destroyed, together with the warehouses of the hong merchants, of whom Mowqua and Puiqua suffered most heavily. Twenty-two people were reported to have been killed, either in the fire or in the rush to escape the flames. Within a week of the outbreak, the British had resumed trade, having moved most of their factory into a warehouse belonging to the hong merchant Consequa.' (P. Conner, The Hongs of Canton, Western Merchants in South China 1700-1900, as seen in Chinese export paintings, London, 2009, pp.90-91).