Portraits of Commissioners Qiying and Lin Zexu

Two fine portraits from Tingqua's studio of the Imperial Commissioners at Canton, both sitters frequently portrayed in the years of crisis ahead of the First Opium War. They are portrayed here in their official dress, wearing their rich blue silk fur-lined winter outer coats with badges of rank, over their dragon robes, and both fingering their apple-green jade and amber necklaces. Their hats denote third rank. Both watercolours are taken from a Tingqua album from which other leaves (in the same Christie's New York sale in 1986) date the production to c.1847.