A VERY RARE DOCUMENTARY FAMILLE ROSE 'UNITED STATES HONG AT CANTON' BOWL
Qianlong period, circa 1787-88
Boldy and precisely enameled around the whole exterior depicting the continuous terrace of 'Hongs' (Western waterfront trading warehouses) at Canton (Guangzhou), the Western style arcaded two-story riverside buildings showing the flags of France, Denmark, the Philippines, America, Sweden, Britain and The Netherlands and one overpainted American flag between the British and Dutch flags, the buildings and the private fenced areas in front, dotted with small figures of promenading and relaxing Western merchants.
14in (35.5cm) diam
Footnotes:
乾隆時期 約1787-88年 珍稀為美國市場製粉彩紀年《廣州美行》大酒碗

Published
Cohen & Cohen, Take Two!, Antwerp, 2017, pp. 130-131, no. 56 (prior to the discovery of the 'overpainted' flag)
Cohen & Cohen, The Elephant in the Room, Antwerp, 2019, pp. 50-53, no. 20

出版：
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《Take Two!》，安特衛普，2017年，頁130-131，圖版編號56（寫於發現《幽靈旗》之前）
倫敦Cohen & Cohen古董行，《The Elephant in the Room》，安特衛普，2019年，頁50-53，圖錄編號20

'Hongs' were the Western trading offices (known in the 17th and 18th century as 'factories') where 'business factor's' worked and lived, restricted to within a quarter mile strip of land along the Pearl River. Merchants rented these Western-style buildings and were confined to this area during the trading season and through which funneled all Western trade with China for a century and a half. It contained the thirteen factories or Hongs which controlled the trade with all the Western Nations.

Reluctant to let brash, hard-drinking rumbustious Western traders and sailors into the recreational areas of the more tranquil walled city of Canton, the Viceroy of Guangzhou Province (no doubt instructed by the emperor) laid down laws that Westerners could only reside and trade for a limited period each year in their national 'Hong', and secondly that warehouses could not be purchased freehold but had to be rented annually. The practical arrangements for each year's trading season were in the hands of a local Chinese trading organization, the 'Co-Hong' (a group of senior Cantonese merchants), whom the archives record shared equally the handsome profits and serious liabilities of dealing with unpredictable and duplicitous foreigners. According to these bowls, our most reliable record, each warehouse building proudly flies the flag of its respective nation, including the flags of Denmark, the Philippines, France, America, Sweden, Britain, and the Netherlands

The earliest bowl depicting panels of 'Hongs' apparently dates from 1765, while versions with the more dramatic continuous 'Hongs' panorama entirely surrounding the bowl (such as the present lot) date from about 1775 onwards. The changing architecture of this terrace of warehouses can be plotted from a careful study of these bowls and from paintings which were also popular at the time, illustrated in great detail by Paul A. Van Dyke and Maria Kar-wing Mok, 2016, Images of the Canton Factories 1760—1822.

This bowl is even more important as a documentary record because of an apparently unique feature of its design and final appearance: This bowl bears between the British and the Dutch flags, a pentimento of the American flag in its location prior to 1787. The bowl appears to have been modified by removing the original enameling and relocating the flag to a position in front of the newly rented Hong, the evidence implies the bowl was in the process of enameling when the change of locations was made, necessitating a modification of the design mid-production.

Yet another very unusual feature of this bowl is that it depicts the new Philippine flag for The Real Compañia de Fliipinas (Royal Philippine Company) which had very recently been founded in Madrid in March 1785, under the direct patronage of King Charles 111 of Spain.

For a senior (and rich, for these were surely expensive) East India merchant trader, a richly enameled 'Hong' bowl of this kind must have been the ultimate souvenir of the long and dangerous trading journey between China and Europe or America. And yet very few of these splendid bowls have survived, and almost all are published in public collections. A bowl with this view was surely the finest available memento of this short riverside stretch at the top of the Pearl River, which became after 1715 the most important (and probably the most lucrative) Western trading area in the whole of Asia.

For other examples from this date, see the bowl in the Peabody Essex Museum, illustrated by Sargent 2012, no. 241, pp. 437-8), and others variously in Historic Deerfield; The Reeves Collection, Washington and Lee University; The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design; while another was sold at Sotheby's London on July 13, 2005, lot 673; and one at Northeast Auctions, Portsmouth, NH, on August 10, 2008, lot 593.