Description:
Chinese export porcelain punch bowl decorated with scenes of the Canton waterfront. Called "hong" bowls by collectors, their decoration depicts the foreign factories or hongs of Western merchants located along the Pearl River in Canton; the term “hong” derived from the Cantonese pronunciation of the Chinese word for business or company (hang). This area of the city served as residences, warehouses, and offices for the foreigners while they were based in Canton for the trading season, generally May through November depending on the monsoons. These structures were built beginning in the 1750s; prior to that time, the Chinese would only rent buildings to foreign merchants annually rather than for a period of years; the foreign factories were ultimately destroyed by fire on December 13, 1856. Pehr Osbeck (1723-1805), a chaplain for the Swedish East India Company posted in Canton, described these foreign factories in his 1771 "A Voyage to China and the East Indies": "The above mentioned houses are but two stories high, but very long; and one end of them stretches towards the river, and the other to the factory-street: some are built of unburnt bricks, other of bricks and wood laid crossways; but the partitions and upper floors are sometimes entirely of wood; therefore they are so poorly provided against fire, that on the seventh of December 1743, in three or four hours, more than 150 houses were reduced to ashes." William Trotter, an American merchant in Canton, described the factories in a similar fashion in his 1797 letter (in the Massachusetts Historical Society): "The Factories of the European nations at Canton are a range of large white Buildings facing the River, they extend back similar to the Hongs of the Chinese merch't. They contain elegant dining Rooms and convenient apartments for the Super Cargoes to transact their Business in, they are handsomely ornamented in front and constructed in the style of the nation they belong to, those belonging to the English and the Dutch Companies are the most stately, they have large Virandas projecting in front which affords a pleasant walk being sheltered from the intense heat of the Sun - facing the factories are placed flagstaffs on which the colors of the respective nations are hoisted, during the residence of their Chief Super Cargo at Canton." According to David Howard, the earliest examples of these bowls were made around 1765 with a single panel scene; by 1785, scenes had become continuous around the exterior of the bowl. Only the wealthiest merchants involved in the China trade owned these decorated punch bowls. When the "Empress of China" returned from Canton in 1785, a tub in Captain John Green's private cargo contained "4 Factory painted Bowles @ 5 1/2 Dolls [a piece]." Another hong bowl descended in the family of Benjamin George Eyre (b. 1738) who was an aide-de-camp to George Washington. After the Revolutionary War, he and his two brothers pursued shipbuilding in Philadelphia, sending their ship "Globe" to Canton several times. John Brown (1736-1803) of Providence, Rhode Island, is also known to have owned a punch bowl, which was given to him by a Chinese merchant, which is now in the collection of the Rhode island Historical Society. The punch bowl displays with the 7 flags of Denmark, Spain, France, America, Sweden, Britain, and Holland, along with scenes of European merchants in tricorn hats and frock coats conducting business with Cantonese merchants inside and outside of the buildings. The American flag is incorrectly rendered with a white field and blue stars, rather than a blue field and white stars. No documentation identifies the exact location of the American factory between 1784 and 1799 when it was established between Sweden and Britain. The thick, gold rim border inside this punch bowl features a diaper pattern over an enameled design of floral swags; the center of the well has a basket of flowers.
Link to share this object record:
https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2772 |
