C19th Chinese export blue & white "The Hongs at Canton" canted square dish, 19cm x19cm. Excellent condition. Depicting the Canton waterfront, flags flying above the British, Dutch and American hongs, small Western and Chinese figures strolling along the quay, some with small children and others peering from windows or balconies or at work, Chinese sampans docked at pier and in the harbor waters.

Provenance: Christie's Interiors, New York, September 2009.

Hong derived from the Cantonese pronunciation of (hang), were Western 'factories' and de facto living quarters and offices of European and American traders in Canton (Guangzhou) in the 18th and 19th centuries. For nearly a century Canton was the only Chinese port at which Westerners were allowed to trade. The merchants leased ‘hongs’ or factories beyond the city’s wall, spacious waterfront buildings built to their own taste. During the period known as the Canton trade system (1757–1842), hong merchants acted as exclusive liaisons between American traders and the Chinese. Holding the license to trade issued by the Chinese government, the hong merchants enjoyed considerable power. All foreign trade was required to be channeled through them. They purchased most of the imports, arranged for exports back to America, and made sure Westerners followed customs and duty regulations. Export plates, punch bowls & canted square dishes (like this piece) depicting the hongs were exotic souvenir items, brought back to the West initially by East Coast entrepreneurs who sailed to China as independent merchants & executives from the British East India Company.Much of the export porcelainware was produced in the town of Jingdezhen in southern China specifically for export to the western market. Undecorated, they were carried five hundred miles overland to Canton (today Guangdong) where enamel decoration was applied in workshops close to the hongs. All goods for export were ferried in the small boats called "Sampan's" seen painted on this dish, to the deep-water port of Whampoa farther down the Pearl River."

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