Punishment of the Wooden Tube, Antique Hand Colored China Print, 1801
€ 390
Original antique · The actual sheet photographed · Certificate of authenticity on request · Sold unframed · Worldwide shipping from € 15 (rates)
Date
1801
Mapmaker / artist
J. Dadley after Pu Qua, for George Henry Mason
Publisher
W. Miller, Old Bond Street, London
Technique
Stipple Engraving
Coloring
Original hand color
Sheet size
24.9 × 34.5 cm (9.8 × 13.6 in)
Condition
Good
Reference
BG-14488-8
What the condition grades mean
Excellent
Bright and clean, with no faults worth mentioning.
Very good
Only light signs of age, such as faint toning.
Good
Normal signs of age for a sheet of this period: toning, some foxing, small marks or neat old repairs.
Fair
Clear faults such as staining, tears or repairs, priced to match.
Every fault we see is written in the condition note, and the whole sheet is shown uncropped in the photos.
Condition
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the left, right and top edges. Scattered foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.
About this sheet
This is an original antique hand colored print of a Chinese punishment, a stipple engraving by J. Dadley for George Henry Mason's The Punishments of China. A man stands bent under a long wooden tube that is chained to his ankles and carried across his body, his face turned to the viewer. The figure is hand colored against bare paper, the plate number is engraved in the upper corner and the imprint of Dadley and W. Miller runs beneath the image.
The sheet is one of the twenty two plates of Mason's The Punishments of China, London, printed for W. Miller, Old Bond Street, 1801. Pu Qua of Canton supplied the drawings, J. Dadley engraved them in stipple, and each plate was issued with a leaf of letterpress explaining the scene in English and in French.
The wooden tube punishment is one of the more obscure in the Qing code and Mason's plate is the standard picture of it. The twisted posture gives the sheet a strong silhouette that reads well framed. Mason had served with the East India Company at Canton and published the series to inform a British readership that knew almost nothing about Chinese law. Stipple engraving, which builds the image from thousands of small dots rather than lines, gives the skin and the cloth a softness that suits hand coloring, and the color on this impression is contemporary with the publication. The sheet is mounted and carries its letterpress leaf on the verso, and it frames well in plain dark wood for a study, a library or a hallway.
Light uneven toning, browner toward the edges. Handling soiling along the left, right and top edges. Scattered foxing in the margin. All four corners complete.
This is an original antique print, not a modern reproduction. This item is sold unframed. Any framed or interior images are shown for presentation and inspiration only, unless the listing explicitly states that the item is sold framed.
