[Chinese School – Tea cultivation]

Lot 60
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
AuctioneerCHRISTIE'S
Lieu de l'événementRoyaume-Uni, London
Commissionsee on Website%
ID 1514374
Lot 60 | [Chinese School – Tea cultivation]
Valeur estimée
£ 4 000 – 6 000
[Chinese School – Tea cultivation]
Series of 120 drawings in pen and ink illustrating the cultivation, preparation, boxing, shipment and sale of tea in China, [Canton, c.1830-1850]
120 leaves, 275 x 300mm, on double-folded leaves, captions in Chinese and English, pages numbered in Chinese. Stitched to form an album, contemporary pink wrappers.

Chinese export drawings showing the production of tea. The drawings depict the cultivation of tea from the preparation of the ground and planting of seeds for tea plants to the picking, drying, preparation of the leaves and the packaging, storage, shipping and finally sale of the finished product. The figures are generally shown on a blank field, although a few, especially between pp.87 and 97 (showing the transport of tea boxes by boat) are enriched with backgrounds. The human figures are exclusively Chinese with the exception of p.116, which shows a man in European dress inspecting boxes of tea with a Chinese merchant. The captions in approximate English are not direct translations of their Chinese counterparts, being usually longer and more descriptive.

Albums of Chinese agriculture, manufacturing and trade, based on the older Gengzhi tu tradition, were a typical production for the European export market from the late 18th century: the style, as here, was simplified and idealised, and the pink wrappers are characteristic.
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