80/5120 Anonymous (late 18th/ early 19th cent.). (A tea plantation in China). Series of 12 gouaches, each ± 38x47,5 cm., framed.

= Splendid Chinese export watercolours showing the various activities on a Chinese tea plantation, including the transport. The Wellcome collection holds a similar series of 9 scenes (albeit slighty more naive). In 2022 Christie's Paris (collection of Hubert de Givenchy) sold a set of 24 slightly bigger gouaches of which several with almost the exact same composition or very similar to this lot (including mirrored compositions). Besides various small differences (mostly seen in the details), the human figures in our lot seem to be more precise and European, especially in their faces. SEE ILLUSTRATION PLATE XLIII.