An excellent example of a rare Chinese album of paintings revealing the tea production process in detail.

Attributed to the studio or circle of Sunqua (fl.1830–1870), the present album contains fine examples of pith paper paintings produced in China, most often Canton, for export to the Western market. The technique of bodycolour on pith produces a semi-translucent effect unattainable using Western methods and entranced the Western world in the nineteenth century. The subjects of these 'trade' albums were chosen to appeal to Europeans, evoking a sense of the 'Orient' to those that had not travelled to China, meaning often the paintings were of Chinese flora and fauna or costumes. The subject of tea production, as here, was less common but perhaps more effectively evoked the connection between China and the West, as the viewer sees the full process of the creation of a product which they would have had in their tea cups at home, complete with the painting and shipping of the crates which arrived in European ports.

Canton, as the only Chinese port permitted to trade with the West from 1757-1842, became the centre of pith painting in the 1830s and 40s. Studios, such as that of Sunqua, flourished with a combination of artistic skill and efficient production that allowed them to meet the demand from the Western market. Sunqua himself was labelled the 'Chinese Hogarth' by Charles Toogood Downing in his work The Fan-qui in China for his impressive artistic skill in both oil and bodycolour. The trade suffered during the First Opium War (1839-41) when a number of the studios in Canton harbour were burned, and then a fire in 1856 destroyed most of what was left. The impact of the pith paper painting trade was impressive considering it thrived in such a relatively small time period, and the continued presence of the paintings in European institutions testifies to their enduring appeal, both visually and historically.

There are collections of paintings on pith in the Ashmolean, the British Museum, the Fitzwilliam, the Hermitage, the Library of Congress, the Peabody/Essex Museum in Massachusetts and the Hong Kong Museum of Art.

4to album (33 x 26 cm); 24 bodycolours on pith paper (each 30.5 x 20.4 cm), all mounted on paper and framed with a pale blue silk fabric border, bookplate, 3 plates with small marginal tears; bound in contemporary patterned decorated silk boards, a touch rubbed, but overall bright and attractive.