{"id":24697,"date":"2018-09-14T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-09-13T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inter-antiquariaat.nl\/dev-en\/antiek\/uncategorized\/china-macartney-embassy\/"},"modified":"2026-06-05T15:45:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-05T13:45:54","slug":"china-macartney-embassy","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/inter-antiquariaat.nl\/en\/antiques\/sold\/china-macartney-embassy\/","title":{"rendered":"China &#8211; after William Alexander, 1796"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201c<strong>View of the Suburbs of a Chinese City.<\/strong>\u201d Copper engraving by <strong>Benjamin Pouncy <\/strong>after a drawing by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/William_Alexander_(painter)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><strong>William Alexander<\/strong><\/a> (1767-1816 ) from the \u201cAuthentic account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China; including cursory observations made, and information obtained, in travelling through that ancient empire\u201d written by<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sir_George_Staunton,_1st_Baronet\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> <strong>Sir George Leonard Staunton<\/strong><\/a> and published <strong>April 12, 1796<\/strong> in London by G. Nicol. Coloured by a later hand. Size (image): 29,5 x 45 \u00a0cm.<\/p>\n<p>The embassy was headed by <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/George_Macartney,_1st_Earl_Macartney\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Earl George Macartney<\/a> (1737-1806), who was dispatched to Beijing in 1792. He was accompanied by Staunton a medical doctor as his secretary, and a retinue of suitably impressive size, including Staunton\u2019s 11-year-old son who was nominally the ambassador\u2019s page. On the embassy\u2019s arrival in China it emerged that the 11-year-old was the only European member of the embassy able to speak Mandarin, and thus the only one able to converse with the Emperor.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Macartney_Embassy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Lord Macartney&#8217;s embassy<\/a> was unsuccessful, the Chinese resisting British overtures to establish diplomatic relations in view of opening the vast Chinese realms to free trade, but it opened the way for future British missions, which would eventually lead to the first Opium War and the cession of Hong Kong to Britain in 1842. It also resulted in this invaluable account, prepared at government expense, largely from Lord Macartney&#8217;s notes, by Staunton, of Chinese manners, customs and artifacts at the height of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Qing_dynasty\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Qing dynasty<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The engravings are of special interest because of their depiction of subjects that very few Europeans had heard of or seen, showing how advanced Chinese civilisation was on a technical, artistic and organizational level.<\/p>\n<p>Staunton describes this particular scene as follows: \u201c<em>The double roofed building on the right hand side of the print is a temple of religious worship. The small box supported on four poles, and ascended by a ladder, a look-out house, one of which is erected at almost every military post; and the building with the gateway thro it serves as a repository for arms, clothes, and other military stores. The method of fishing with a net stretched out by four pieces of bamboo, and suspended to a long pole, as in the hands of the figure sitting on the bank of the river in the fore-ground, is an universal practice throughout the empire.<\/em>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Price: SOLD<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cView of the Suburbs of a Chinese City.\u201d Copper engraving by Benjamin Pouncy after a drawing by William Alexander (1767-1816 ) from the \u201cAuthentic account of an embassy from the King of Great Britain to the Emperor of China; including cursory observations made, and information obtained, in travelling through that ancient empire\u201d written by Sir [&#8230;]\n","protected":false},"featured_media":17282,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[1397],"product_tag":[],"class_list":["post-24697","product","type-product","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-alexander-william-1767-1816","product_cat-sold","first","outofstock","sold-individually","shipping-taxable","product-type-simple"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>China Macartney Embassy history original antique print rare engraving<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"China Macartney Embassy history original antique print rare engraving 18th century\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/inter-antiquariaat.nl\/en\/antiques\/sold\/china-macartney-embassy\/\" \/>\n<meta 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