The Winterthur Library

The Joseph Downs Collection of Manuscripts and Printed Ephemera

Henry Francis du Pont Winterthur Museum, Winterthur, DE 19735

302-888-4600 or 800-448-3883

OVERVIEW OF THE COLLECTION

Title: Collection of Chinese Export Watercolors

Dates: ca.1790-ca.1860

Call No.: Col. 111

Acc. No.: 68x71, 78x23, 91x75, 92x93, 93x116.1-.3, 03x144, 08x53.1

Quantity: 14 boxes

Location: 3 C 1-14

HISTORICAL STATEMENT

This is an artificial collection of nine albums containing Chinese watercolors. Chinese export watercolors were painted in the port cities of China for sale to western customers in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Until the middle of the 19th century the watercolors were mostly souvenirs brought back by merchants. Afterward, they became commodities in their own right. The watercolors were painted in workshops using mass production techniques. Works were done in watercolor or gouache, initially on European papers, particularly paper produced by the English firm of J. Whatman, but later on pith "paper," produced from the pith of the Chinese plant tongcao. Many were issued in sets covering trades, domestic interiors and gardens, boats, birds, mandarins, etc. Particularly popular were sets illustrating tea culture, the silk industry, and the making of porcelain as they explained the products imported to the west. Colors used were those common in Chinese painting, but there was a clear tendency for primary hues to predominate, especially in those done on pith paper.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The collection consists of nine albums. The largest album has been disbound, but the others remain intact. Little is known about the smaller albums; one was presented to a woman (or girl) in San Francisco in 1849. Many of the drawings in these albums are on pith paper. One album depicts a Chinese woman engaged in different aspects of silk making, including weaving, spinning, and winding silk. Other albums depict insects in various stages of development; boats, most of which show small figures engaged in activities on deck; male and female costumes; furniture, particularly tables and chairs, and household goods; punishments of criminals; and views of Macao and Canton.

The largest album contains eighty-two detailed watercolor drawings, compiled from the work of various anonymous artists from a number of Canton workshops during the Qing Dynasty, largely the Jiaging and Daoguang periods (1796-1820 and 1821-50 respectively). The drawings were part of the trade of Chinese export watercolors intended for the British market. Three of the pages bear a watermark for J. Whatman. The album encompasses a sampling of five genres as follows: forty-eight of fruit and flowers characteristic of Chinese attention to withered and insect-damaged leaves; seven of fish, all against a plain background; eleven of birds in habitat; eleven of Chinese officials and their wives against a plain background; and five interior and terrace scenes of daily Chinese life.

ORGANIZATION

Boxes 1-2 contain the eight smaller albums. Boxes 3-14 contain the drawings from the largest album, which is now disbound. A detailed description of the drawings in Boxes 3-14 is available at this repository.

LANGUAGE OF MATERIALS

The materials are in English and Chinese.

RESTRICTIONS ON ACCESS

Collection is open to the public. Copyright restrictions may apply.

PROVENANCE

Gifts and purchases from several sources.

ACCESS POINTS

Topics:

China trade watercolor painting.

China trade art.

Industries - China - 1644-1912.

Watercolor painting, Chinese.

Art, Chinese - Ming-Ch’ing dynasties, 1368-1912.

China - Social life and customs - 1644-1912.

Drawings.

Watercolors.

Albums.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE COLLECTION

Location: 3 C 1-14

Box 1:

Folder 1: Album of silk production, 1849 (acc. 78x23)

Women demonstrating the various stages of silk production, including weaving, spinning, and winding silk. (10 drawings)

Folder 2: Album of insects, ca.1850-ca.1860 (acc. 93x116.1)

Insects in various stages of development. (11 drawings)

Folder 3: Album of ships and fishing boats, ca.1840-ca.1860 (acc. 92x116.2)

Ships and fishing boats, many with figures engaged in activities on deck (9 drawings)

Folder 4: Album of Chinese costumes, ca.1850-ca.1860 (acc. 92x116.3)

Male and female figures in Chinese costume (6 drawings)

Folder 5: Chinese paintings of Macao and Canton, ca.1820-1840. (acc. 03x144)

Four landscape paintings, executed in China, probably ca.1820-1840. Each painting is done on pith paper, matted with blue silk ribbon, and mounted onto the pages of this small album. The scenes depict the foreign factories in Canton (with French, American, British, and Dutch flags), the Whampoa anchorage in the Pearl River below Canton, Boca Tigris (also spelled Bocca Tigris and also called the Bogue) along the Pearl River, and the city of Macao. Albums of this sort were frequently exported to England and the United States. The painting of Macao very closely resembles an oil painting held by the Peabody Essex Museum and depicted in the book Views of the Pearl River Delta. (4 drawings)

Folder 6: Chinese paintings of punishments of criminals, ca.1800-1900. (acc. 08x53.1)

The twelve paintings depict: 1. Magistrate in court; 2. Arrest of criminals [sic, only one criminal is being arrested]; 3. Punishment of criminal by parading him in the street; 4. Slapping the mouth for telling lies; 5. Punishment by stretching the criminal on a wooden bench [with another criminal confined in a barrel or bag of some sort]; 6. Punishment by cangue, or wooden pillory; 7. Torture by pressing the ancles [sic] of criminal with wooden poles; 8. Bambooing his breeches [i.e. hitting the criminal on the buttocks with a bamboo pole]; 9. Tying him to a stone; 10. Banishment; 11. Ling Ch’ee (i.e. cutting off the flesh of the criminal piece by piece); and 12. Beheading – the capital punishment in China. (12 drawings)

Box 2:

Folder 1: Album of Chinese furniture, [ca. 1840-ca. 1860] (acc. 68x71)

Watercolor paintings depicting Chinese furniture, particularly chairs and tables, and accessories, including household goods and art objects. (8 drawings)

Folder 2: Album of Chinese costumes, [ca. 1850-ca. 1860] (acc. 92x93)

Consists of 28 watercolor portraits of male and female Chinese figures on pith paper. The illustrations provide examples of nineteenth century Chinese dress, including that of scholars, court officials, warriors, and ladies. There are Chinese characters in the top right hand corner of each page. (28 drawings)

(Note: for a more detailed description of the drawings in Boxes 3-14, see the list available at this repository)

Box 3: accession number 91x75 Drawings 1-7, flowers and corn

Box 4: accession number 91x75 Drawings 8-14, flowers

Box 5: accession number 91x75 Drawings 15-21, flowers and fruit

Box 6: accession number 91x75 Drawings 22-28, fruit

Box 7: accession number 91x75 Drawings 29-35, fish

Box 8: accession number 91x75 Drawings 36-42, flowers and fruit

Box 9: accession number 91x75 Drawings 43-49, flowers

Box 10: accession number 91x75 Drawings 50-55, flowers, fruit, corn

Box 11: accession number 91x75 Drawings 56-61, birds

Box 12: accession number 91x75 Drawings 62-66, birds

Box 13: accession number 91x75 Drawings 67-74, people in costume

Box 14: accession number 91x75 Drawings 75-82, people in costume, interior and terrace scenes