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SE-TSEAOU-SHAN OR "THE WESTERN SEARED HILLS"
Artist: Thomas Allom ____________ Engraver: J. Redaway |
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: About one hundred miles west from the city of Canton, a mountain group arises, as remarkable for the actual area which it occupies, as for the vast number of its abrupt and pointed summits. The eternal resting-place of clouds, it becomes the parent of many rivers, contributing also to swell the volume of the navigable and fertilizing Se-keang. The scenery of this rocky region is celebrated by all travellers and tale-tellers; but the riches of legendary lore do not constitute the only or the greatest treasures of the locality. Those are obtained by the appliances of art and industry- "gold, precious stones, silk, pearls, eaglewood, tin, quicksilver, sugar, copper, iron, steel, saltpetre, ebony, and abundance of aromatic woods." These treasures, combined with the produce of the fertile plains that sleep around this mountain-mass render the province of Kwang-tung, the most wealthy, commercial and civilized in the empire. Never was mountain-scenery so illustrated by either legend or story-breathing epithet as the many-topped hills of Se-tseaou; there is not a crag in all these rude, romantic, rugged regions, that has not its tradition-there is not a natural form of any magnitude unmarked by some characteristic designation.
The form of the Se-tseaou is said to resemble "a floating dragon," embracing within its sinuosities a circuit of at least forty ie. Around it is drawn by nature, or some preternatural power, four deep and yawning dikes, called Keen-tsun, Sha-tow, Lung-tsin, and Kin, and from its summit start up, in broken yet conical forms, seventy-two conspicuous and lofty peaks. Like the towers of a fortress around the central keep, or the lily's leaves around its sheltered cup, these tall peaks enclose and overhang Yan-Yuh, or "the Valley of Clouds," a vast and fertile plain within them. The keen blasts from the east are intercepted by the peaks called Ta-ko. Down the centre of the Valley of Clouds flows a clear bright stream, having its springs amidst the " Heaven's height," and the " Heaven's grove" summits, whence the water, falling in majestic sheets from one precipice to another, reaches at last the rocky reservoir that furnishes a copious supply to the river. The inhabitants of this happy valley have, with a natural and excellent judgment, conferred upon many of the surrounding objects names expressive of some characteristic property. The presence of mineral treasures is indicated by the names of Gold and Silver Wells, Iron Spring, and Jasper Rock. The bolts of imperial Jove have doubtless been often shivered on the sides and the summits of the Luytan-lun, 'Thundermound,' while the "Peak of the Genii," and the " Spirit's Hand," and the " Nine Dragons," have preserved in their legendary titles the fabulous records of these alpine regions, Underneath the "Rock Peak," which closes the entrance of the vale, the stream that' winds through its ranks suddenly from view into "The Bottomless Well," and, after a subterranean course of more than half a mile, enters the Pearl Canal, which opens into the Se-keang, or Western river. How closely does the Moralist's imagined seclusion from the pursuits of men resemble these faithful details of the "Valley of Clouds!"- "The place which the wisdom or policy of antiquity had destined for the residence of the Abyssinian princes was a spacious valley in the kingdom of Ambara, surrounded on every-side by mountains, of which the suirimitg overhang the middle part. The only passage by which it could be entered was a cavern that passed under a rock, of which it had long been disputed whether it was the "work' of nature or of human industry.'
Amongst the numerous occupations that minister to the necessities, happiness, and wealth of the inhabitants of the Se-tseaou-shan, fishing constitutes one of the most constant. Not content with the tedious ptucess of the hook and line, the Chinaman uniformly employs the more unfailing mushes of a finely-woven net. The barge or flat-bottomed boat employed in this service, is supplied with two levers, rude long poles tied together at one end, but having a net, with its suspension-frame of crossed hoops, depending from the other. The manager of the machinery allows the lever to ascend just as many feet as he desires that the net should sink in the water; and, after waiting a reasonable time for the fish to be attracted by the bait, he draws the tied ends down again, by which means the net is raised to the surface, at the stern of the boat, where an assistant is in readiness to secure the draught. This mode of fishing is essentially the same as that pursued by the fishermen on the coast of Hong Kong island.
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.
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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!
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