China.- Chinese School (19th century) The porcelain pagoda (or stupa) of the Pao-en-szu of Nanking, woodblock, on very fine paper, sheet approx. 960 x 490 mm (37 3/4 x 19 1/4 in), numerous splits and punctures within the sheet, but only minor losses, some tears and handling creases, affixed into mount with tape at edges, unfamed, [circa 1808-1850]

⁂ Unique and apparently unrecorded, we have been unable to trace another example.

A party of British officers and men visited the pagoda on 28th August 1842, the day before the Treaty of Nanjing (Nanking) was signed. Published accounts by Captain Granville Loch, 1843, and Lieut. John Ochterlony, 1844 record the event and mention this image of the tower, locally produced by priests. "In exchange for 2 empty beer bottles, we procured some impressions of the pagoda upon thin paper with a history attached in Chinese". [Loch pp. 184-185]

"[Priests] openly dealt in pictures of the edifice, and in specimens of the yellow and red glazed tiles used in its construction [...] In the neighbourhood of the tower, however, our party was more successful; many invaluable specimens of its materials were obtained, some I blush to record, extracted from the sacred site itself, and some purchased on quitting it, from the priests in the lower story". [Lieut. John Ochterlony, The Chinese War: An Account of All the Operations of the British Forces from the Commencement to the Treaty of Nanking, 1844].