The Massacre of the Chinese at Batavia in 1740, Antique Print, circa 1750

About this sheet

An original antique copper engraving of one of the darkest events in the history of the Dutch East Indies. The view looks along a canal lined with burning houses toward the city wall, with bodies in the water, figures being cut down on the banks and smoke rising the length of the street. The caption is engraved in French and Dutch together beneath the image: TABLEAU de la Partie de BATAVIA, ou s'est fait proprement le terrible MASSACRE des CHINOIS, le 9 Octob. 1740, and AFBEELDING van dat Gedeelte van BATAVIA, alwaar eigentlyk de schrikkelyke SLAGTING der CHINEZEN geschied is. The plate is signed J. V. Schley, direx.

In October 1740 the Dutch colonial administration of Batavia, now Jakarta, turned on the city's Chinese population; in the course of a few days something like ten thousand people were killed. The engraving was made for the Dutch edition of the Abbe Prevost's Histoire Generale des Voyages, published at The Hague by Pierre de Hondt with the plates under the direction of Jakob van der Schley, a pupil of Bernard Picart and one of the best Dutch engravers of the mid eighteenth century.

This is a document rather than a decoration, and it is bought as such: by collectors of Indonesian and colonial material, by institutions, and by Chinese Indonesian families for whom the event is part of their own history. Contemporary images of the massacre are few and this is the best known of them. It is a horizontal sheet that frames well and belongs in a library or a study rather than a living room.

Light uneven toning, browner towards the edges. Marked 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.