Chinese School Qing Dynasty, Circa 1800

oil on canvas
each depicting figures engaged in the various stages of the manufacture, respectively, of silk, including the picking of mulberry leaves, feeding of the silkworms, warming of the cocoons, reeling, combings , dying and weaving of the threads, and retailing and transport of the fabric, and tea, including picking and sorting of the leaves, labeling and storage of the canisters, and transport of the tea by boat, all set within an extensive romantic landscape with sinuous trees and various buildings under colorful, cloud-filled skies (2)

McClees Galleries, Haverford, Pennsylvania.

canvases lined, stretcher and frames modern, surface with craquelure throughout, moderatly soiled, under Uv light extensive inpainting along edges and corners, scattered inpainted vertical and horizontal slits throughout, scattered inpainted flakes and spots throughout
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any stat.mes nt made by Replica Shoes 's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
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Oil paintings of this scale, depicting the various stages of the production of Chinese commodities such as tea, silk or porcelain within a single work, are extremely rare. The majority of Chinese export paintings depicting these subjects are often painted in gouache or watercolor on paper, of a later date, smaller in scale, and divide the various steps of production into separate works.

Compare a larger work illustrating the steps in the production of porcelain, sold at Christie's Hong Kong, 25 October 1993, lot 1264, and now in the collects ion of the Peabody Essex Museum, illustrated in Picturing Cathay, Marit.mes and Cultural Images of the China Trade, Hong Kong, 2003, no. 84, p. 144. Compare also a work depicting the manufacture of silk, offered in the same sale noted above, lot 1265. 

A comparison of these two works with the present example suggests that all come from the same workshop, if not the same hand. All three works depict similar small figures and buildings within a receding landscape, animated by arching trees with calligraphic branches and roots. The recession of landscape is achieved through the utilization of linear and aerial perspective and the employment of serpentine lines via rivers and mountains. These conventions, together with the low horizon and animated colorful sky, point to Italianate and Dutch landscape paintings for their ultimate inspiration. For a similar work with different composition, in the Hong Kong Museum of Art, depicting the stages in the production of silk, see Late Qing China Trade Paintings, Hong Kong, 1982, no. 38, p. 62.  A painting of slightly smaller size than the present work, depicting the manufacture of cotton, was sold in these rooms 20th January 2005, lot 978.

For other related early examples, depicting figures within a landscape, compare two winter landscapes, both sold in these rooms, 7th April 1988, lot 79; and 11th April 1990, lot 132. Compare also a work depicting a dragon-boat race, sold at Christie's New York, 16th September 1998, lot 240.

It has not yet been determined who the artist or workshop which created these paintings are, however, Carl Crossman, in The Decorative Arts of the China Trade, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, has tentatively attributed similar works to Spoilum or one of his followers.