Item #249369 The Punishments of China. [With:] 23 original watercolor drawings after the plates. George Henry Mason.

With 23 Original Watercolors

The Punishments of China. [With:] 23 original watercolor drawings after the plates.

London: William Miller, 1804.

Price: $9,500.00


About the item

Reprint of 1804 second edition, plates watermarked 1819. 22 hand-colored aquatints after Pu-Qua with accompanying text leaves in English and French. Folio. With 23 Original Watercolors. Full contemporary green morocoo, gilt, a.e.g., rubbed, head of spine damaged. Ex-library with shelfmarks, bookplate, and perforated stamps. Accompanying watercolors very good, removed from album, some cropped and matted, some light creasing, waterstaining affecting one image. Abbey Travel, 532; Colas 2011; Lipperheide 1522 (1808 ed).

Item #249369

With a fine set of 23 original watercolors by Chinese artists for export to Europe, illustrating the various “Punishments of China.”
The accompanying watercolors are captioned in a later hand, indicating that they were used for the plates in Punishments. Though they closely resemble the illustrations in Punishments, it is unlikely that these were the very models used for publication. These watercolors, drawn on European paper, were certainly produced in a Chinese shop (possibly Pu-Qua’s) for export to Europe. They show signs of having been removed from an album, which was how these drawings were commonly sold. Scenes of Chinese punishment and costumes were popular themes at the time.