Eastern Art Online, Yousef Jameel Centre for Islamic and Asian Art

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The Original Watercolours of the Costumes of Chinafront

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford

  • The Original Watercolours of the Costumes of China (back)
  • The Original Watercolours of the Costumes of China (side)
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The Original Watercolours of the Costumes of China

  • Description

    Pasted into this leatherbound volume are the original watercolours for one of the earliest illustrated books on Chinese customs to be published in English. At the back is the author’s manuscript together with details of the publisher’s and printer’s quotes and a newspaper cutting announcing the publication.

    The watercolours were purchased in Canton in 1789. They are of a type produced in workshops for sale chiefly to foreigners, for whom they functioned as records of the exotic. George Henry Mason published them under the title Costumes of China yet they equally record trade and leisure activities.

  • Details

    show all
    Associated place
    Asia › China › Guangdong province › Guangzhou (place of creation)
    Europe › United Kingdom (place of creation)
    Date
    1789 - 1800
    Artist/maker
    Material and technique
    ink, watercolours, with pencil on paper; bound in leather
    Dimensions
    book 33.6 x 26.3 x 3.7 cm (height x width x depth)
    double page 33.6 x 53 cm (height x width)
    page 32.5 x 25 cm (height x width)
    pages 268 (count)
    Material index
    processed material › paper,
    processed material › leather
    Technique index
    covered › coated › painted,
    marked › painted,
    decorated › painted,
    painted,
    drawn (image) › line drawing,
    more
    Object type index
    communications equipment › manuscript,
    visual representation › album
    No. of items
    1
    Credit line
    Purchased with the assistance of the Art Fund, the Friends of the Ashmolean Museum, and the MLA/V&A Purchase Grant Fund, 2003.
    Accession no.
    EA2003.4

  • Further reading

    Vainker, Shelagh, ‘Costumes of China’, Orientations, 34/November, (2003), passim, illus. pp. 52-55

Location

    • currently in research collection

Objects are sometimes moved to a different location. Our object location data is usually updated on a monthly basis. Contact the Jameel Study Centre if you are planning to visit the museum to see a particular object on display, or would like to arrange an appointment to see an object in our reserve collections.

 

© 2013 University of Oxford - Ashmolean Museum