FINE CHINA TRADE PAITNINGS FROM MARTYN GREGORY, LONDON, PART II
LAMQUA (ACTIVE 1820-1860)
Portrait of the Hong Merchant Howqua Oil on canvas, in the original Chinese carved and gilt frame. 29cm (11 3/8in) high x 25cm (9 7/8in) wide.
關喬昌（活躍於約1820-1860）行商伍秉鑒肖像 布面油畫 有框
Wu Bingjian (1769-1843), known to Westerners as Houqua, was the most prominent Hong merchant in Canton (Guangzhou) during the early nineteenth century. Hong merchants were a group of Chinese wholesalers in Guangzhou with whom Westerners conducted their trade. Born in the same year as Napoleon and Wellington, Houqua's death in 1843 coincided with the opening of the Treaty Ports. In the early 1800s, he was perhaps the richest man on earth, with a web of contacts spanning the globe. His wealth, estimated at $26 million in 1834 (for comparison, banker Nathan Rothschild possessed $5.3 million in 1828), was primarily amassed through trade in luxury goods, alongside shrewd investments in American railways and other new technologies. Houqua was so renowned that Madame Tussaud's in London displayed a waxwork figure of him.
Chinese 'export' portraits of Houqua likely originated from a series of portraits painted by George Chinnery, a British artist residing in Macao and Guangzhou in the 1820s-1840s. One such portrait, now in the HSBC Collection in Hong Kong, was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1831. This painting was copied by unidentified Chinese artists in Guangzhou workshops as well as by foreign artists like Speakman. These portrait copies served as important branding tools, displayed in the offices of businessmen worldwide, demonstrating Houqua's extensive reach and financial empire. See R.Hutcheon, Chinnery, Hong Kong, 1989, p.78.
A related painting, though lacking details of the curtain, lantern and landscape, was sold at Sotheby's Hong Kong, 26 May 2021, lot 181.
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Buyers' Premium and Charges
For all Sales categories, buyer's premium excluding Cars, Motorbikes, Wine, Whisky and Coin & Medal sales, will be as follows:
Buyer's Premium Rates
28% on the first £40,000 of the hammer price;
27% of the hammer price of amounts in excess of £40,000 up to and including £800,000;
21% of the hammer price of amounts in excess of £800,000 up to and including £4,500,000;
and 14.5% of the hammer price of any amounts in excess of £4,500,000.
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VAT at the current rate of 20% will be added to the Buyer's Premium and charges excluding Artists Resale Right.
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Shipping Notices
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