China, COAL MINE WORKERS BEI RIVER MEILING Guangdong ~ 1842 Art Print Engraving

Description: COAL-MINES AT YING-TIH Artist: Thomas Allom ____________ Engraver: W. A. Le Petit Note: the title in the table above is printed below the engraving AN ANTIQUE STEEL ENGRAVING MADE IN THE EARLY 1840s !! ITEM IS OVER 150 YEARS OLD! VERY OLD WORLD! INCREDIBLE DETAIL! FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: Coal abounds universally in China, although not raised so extensively in any district as that at the base of the Meling mountains, which bound the province of Kwang-Tung on the north. Where the Pe-kiang river, descending from this vast chain, forces its way between the rocks, native industry is actively displayed in the process of raising coal, and lading the barges for the lower country, where extensive potteries are established. Coal-districts are in general wild and savage in their aspect, and Ying-Tih, however relieved by the magnificent forms that appear on every side, partakes still of all the characters of desolation. Once clad with pines, the miner has disafforested the banks, and few dwellings, save the colliers' huts and agents' offices, contribute to humanize the prospect. Intent on gain, at least on occupation, a dense population is collected here, finding homes in miserable cottages on the summit of the cliff, or occasionally in the very bowels of the earth. No assistance being derived from machinery, no coal is raist through upright shafts, after the depth becomes inconvenient, or water collects in the pit; so that the principal and most profitable mode of working, consists in driving horizontal levels, or adits, into the front of the rock that overhangs the river. In this water is readily drawn off, ingress and egress easily accomplished, and the coal discharged into the barges, immediately from the mouth of the pit. A fleet of junks is always assembled beneath the beetling brow of Ying-Tih, waiting their turn; some just under the entrance of an adit, others at the foot of a long flight of steps that descend from shafts sunk in higher parts of the hills. Carriers appear inperpetual motion on the stairs hewn with vast labour in the rock, bringing the coal from an adit to the junks below, or returning for another load. .Neither barrows, nor wains, nor any mechanical advantage, is seized by the colliers in this operation; two baskets, suspended from a bamboo cane that rests across the shoulders, being the only adjutory means employed. Fossil, bituminous, and stone coal are found in China, but the last kind appears to be most prevalent. From the pit it is frequently taken to places where it is charred a little, before use; and coal-dust combined with earth makes a convenient mixture for rice-stoves. So early as the age of Marco Polo, the Venetian traveller, this valuable mineral was familiarly known to the Chinese, yet they do not appear to have applied it to manufacturing purposes. "There is found" writes that eminent traveller, cc, sort of black stone, which they dig out of mountains, where it runs in veins. When lighted it burns like charcoal, and retains the fire much better than wood: insomuch that it may be preserved during the night, and in the morning be found still burning. These stones do not flame, excepting a little when first lighted, but during their ignition give out a considerable heat." ABOUT THE ARTIST: Thomas Allom (1804-1872) was a Topographical Illustrator and Architect. He was born in London, England and in 1819 he was apprenticed to the architect Francis Goodwin. He produced designs for buildings, churches, workhouses and a military asylum in London and carried them out himself as well as working with the architect Sir Charles Barry on numerous projects. He found time to produce an enormous number of views, and like his contemporary William Henry Bartlett, illustrated places rather than people or still life. Allom was a founder member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He died at the age of 68 in Barnes, London, England. Though he traveled widely in the course of his work, Allom produced his drawings of China, probably his most successful series, by merely crossing the road from the house in Hart Street to the British Museum. It was obviously an economical solution for his publisher, who had managed to convince himself that 'Having dwelt in "the land of the cypress and myrtle", Mr. Allom's talents were fully matured for the faithful delineation of Oriental scenery. His designs were based entirely on the work of earlier artists who had traveled in China, and although he has been justifiably criticised for failure in some instances to acknowledge the original sketches, Allom displays considerable resourcefulness and ingenuity in the way he borrowed and gathered his material from them. Acknowledgement was made to three amateurs, eight of the plates to Lieutenant Frederick White R.M., fourteen to Captain Stoddart, R.N. and two to R. Varnham (who was the son of a tea planter and a pupil of George Chinnery (1774-1852). Nine designs are taken entirely or partially from Sketches of China and the Chinese (1842) by August Borget (1808-1877)," which had been published in England the previous year. He made neat pencil sketches from an album of Chinese landscapes water colours by anonymous Chinese artists that he then turned into fourteen designs. "Another group are based on a set of anonymous drawings that show the silk manufacturing process. Allom made particularly ingenious use of the drawings of William Alexander (1767-1818). Having first traced over a number of Alexander's watercolors in the British Museum (a practice which would certainly be frowned upon today) he used these tracings' either in part or combination in about twenty of his designs. But he never uses exactly the same scene as Alexander without altering the viewpoint or changing the details, his knowledge of perspective enabling him 'to walk round' a view of a building as in his Western Gates of Peking, which takes a viewpoint to the other side of the river. He uses background to Alexander's more peaceful seascape of 1794, The Forts of Anunghoi saluting the 'Lion' in the Bocca Tigris, and updates it to an event sketched by White during the First Opium War of 1841 when the Imogene and Andromache under Lord Napier forced a passage through the straits. Two of Alexander's drawings are sometimes combined - his Chinamen playing 'Shitticock' (sic) are placed by Allom in front of the Pagoda of Lin-ching-shih taken from another Alexander drawing. The prints were a welcome addition to Fisher's series and became the best known source on the subject of China. Until the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 China had been almost totally inaccessible to the European traveller but the first Opium War had created a new sort of interest. The admiration of the 18th and early 19th centuries for Chinese culture and decoration was replaced by a more critical and inquiring attitude. Until photography gave a more accurate picture, a great many people's perception of China and the Chinese people was probably influenced by Allom's idealised images. An interesting use of these, on the ceramic pot lids produced by F. & R. Pratt and Co. throughout the second half of the 19th century, demonstrate how Allom's images, themselves derived from such a variety of sources, became in turn a design source for other ornamental applications. Because of their decorative appeal wide use is still made of reproductions of these illustrations. SIZE: Image size is 5 inches by 7 1/2 inches. Print size is 7 inches by 10 inches. CONDITION: Condition is excellent. Bright and clean. Blank on reverse. SHIPPING: Buyers to pay shipping/handling, domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular mail. We pack properly to protect your item! Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, heliogravure, lithograph, print, plate, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, NOT blocks of steel or wood. "ENGRAVINGS", the term commonly used for these paper prints, were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books, and these paper prints or "engravings" were inserted into the book with a tissue guard frontis, usually on much thicker quality rag stock paper, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone prints. So this auction is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper. EXTREMELY RARE IN THIS EXCELLENT CONDITION!

Price: 19.99 USD

Location: New Providence, New Jersey

End Time: 2024-12-03T18:47:21.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.95 USD