Muwen Tang Collection

During the Qianlong period, the Qing court implemented the Canton System, under which the Hong merchants acted as sole agents for all foreign trade affairs. Foreign traders were restricted to a designated area along the Pearl River, southwest of the city walls of Guangzhou. Leased from the Hong merchants, the properties later known as the foreign factories served both as trading premises and as residences. The national flag of the resident trader would be flown in front of the entrance during his stay.

Port scenery is a classic theme in export paintings, though most examples adopt a frontal view. The composition of this work was inspired by Western perspective, with the scene captured from a side angle, guiding the viewer’s eye from the vessels on the river to the factories on the opposite bank. This evokes the sensation of sailing into the port and witnessing the historical confluence of East and West, as well as the bustling scenes of this key trading hub. Few pith-paper paintings portraying port scenery have survived to this day. Therefore, this piece is particularly rare among export paintings for its excellent state of preservation.

Early export paintings often catered to the European market by focusing on port scenery, capturing scenes of Chinese trade. As foreign trade in Guangzhou flourished, Western interest expanded beyond records of voyages to encompass detailed depictions of life within the port.

Local painters in Guangzhou produced numerous “genre paintings” depicting scenes of everyday life, often executed in watercolour and gouache. This piece is distinguished by its subject matter, depicting a funeral scene that departs from traditional landscape themes. The work incorporates elements of Western drawing and printmaking in its composition, perspective, and handling of light and shadow. These elements, combined with its meticulous brushwork, reflect an integration and variation of East–West painting traditions.

From the mid to late Qing dynasty, foreign traders in China were mainly restricted to the southern coastal region, therefore export paintings often depicted scenery of riverbanks. Oil paintings featuring a snowy evening are rare among Qing export paintings.

In this painting, a barrack outside the city wall is blanketed in snow, while military officers in a nearby pavilion watch an archery competition. One contestant draws his bow, aiming for the centre of the target. The heavy, cloudless sky particularly captures attention, emphasising the stillness of winter. For Westerners who had never set foot in inland China, the northern Manchu society was both remote and mysterious. The creativity of southern artists is on full display in this work, rendering it a rarity among export paintings.

Guangzhou painters were inspired by the reverse glass painting technique that was popular in Europe. By reproducing Western copperplate prints on the reverse of glass panels in oil or gouache, and incorporating Chinese landscapes, figures, and folklore, they created a unique hybrid style.

The female figure and the boating scene are imbued with an Eastern sensibility, while Western oil painting techniques were employed to create contrasts of light and shadow and a sense of three-dimensional depth. The work reflects the Chinese painter’s thorough command of Western artistic conventions and their synthesis of Eastern and Western characteristics. 

This four-lobed box has a fitted lid and a five-compartment inner tray. The tray is sky blue, painted with lotus scrolls and edged in gilt to evoke the style of cloisonné. The cover and the sides of the box are decorated with similar floral scrolls, featuring the Eight Auspicious Symbols of Buddhism: the wheel, conch, umbrella, canopy, lotus, jar, fish and endless knot. Floral and fruit motifs on blue ground design became fashionable in Canton enamels from the late Qianlong period.

As a traditional auspicious object representing status and blessing, the ruyi-sceptre was favoured by the aristocracy and elite. This example has a foliated cloud-shaped head and a lower end adorned with cloud patterns. The tip of its end is further decorated by a bat with outstretched wings, symbolising happiness and longevity. The entire surface is richly decorated with the “Three Abundances” design—pomegranates for fertility, finger citrons for blessings and peaches for longevity. Painted in vibrant enamels of orange, green and pink with delicate brushwork, this piece exemplifies both the pinnacle of enamelling during the Qianlong period and the Qing characteristics for ornate craftsmanship and auspicious symbolism.

This round ivory fan carved in openwork unfolds into a full circle with 60 sticks. Both sides of the handle are engraved with chrysanthemums and geometric designs. The entire surface is decorated with floral motifs and birds, with seven reserved panels depicting landscapes and bird-and-flower scenes.

Known abroad as the “cockade fan”, this type is the most prized among export ivory folding fans, and few complete large examples survive. As they were costly and complicated to produce, manufacture was limited to a brief period from the late Qianlong to the Jiaqing period. Rare in China, even within the imperial court, these fans were mostly acquired by European royalty.

This pagoda comprises a base, a nine-storeyed body, and a steeple. The octagonal base is adorned with carved ivory panels and enclosed by a balustrade along its edge, with a paifang positioned at both the front and the rear. Seven of the nine storeys each enshrine a seated figure, some retaining traces of pigment. The eaves narrow progressively with each ascending storey; the bells once suspended from their corners have been lost. The steeple is crowned by a gourd-shaped finial rising above a lotus-form base.

This pagoda brings together a range of Cantonese ivory carving techniques, including sculpture in the round, relief carving, openwork, and assembly. During the Qing dynasty, ivory pagodas of this kind served both as imperial tribute and as goods for export. In China, pagodas were primarily erected to commemorate Śākyamuni and to enshrine sacred Buddhist relics. For Westerners, the pagoda became a visual emblem of China: Western visitors arriving in Guangzhou first encountered the Pazhou Pagoda rising above the riverbank, and pagoda motifs featured prominently in export art.

Ivory tribute wares sent from Guangzhou to the Qing court were primarily carved or woven. The latter were made by paring ivory into fine threads and weaving them into a mesh. Fans produced with this technique were prominent tributes during the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods.

This exquisitely crafted fan belonged to the Qing court collection. Its leaf carries hexagonal patterns woven with ivory using 192 weft threads. It is supported by a single central “palm” bamboo stick and finished with a painted enamel handle. The ivory surface is also decorated with carved and stained peony and phoenix designs, embellished with precious materials such as tortoiseshell outer frame and ornamentation inlaid with mother-of-pearl and kingfisher feathers.

Cantonese embroidery is renowned for its varied stitches, rich compositions, and lifelike imagery. The Qing dynasty marked the golden age in the development of Cantonese embroidery, when embroideries were presented as tribute to the Qing court and exported widely as a popular art form.

This monumental embroidery takes as its subject “a hundred birds in song”, depicting more than a hundred birds of various sizes across the textile, interspersed with peonies, chrysanthemums, and other floral motifs in a refined palette. Auspicious imagery is woven throughout, including “may your five sons attain success in the civil service examinations” (a hen instructing her chicks) and “conjugal harmony” (mandarin ducks nestling together). Worked in fine and even stitches across a diverse repertoire of techniques, the birds are rendered with vivid liveliness and the flowers in resplendent beauty—a consummate exemplar of Cantonese embroidery at its finest. 

Originally in the Dutch royal collection, this tea set once belonged to Queen Juliana of the Netherlands (1909 – 2004). It includes a tea caddy, teapot, sugar bowl, biscuit basket, trays, lidded bowls, and 12 sets of lidded cups and handled cups. Made from gilt silver and “latticed” filigree technique, the wares were ornamented on their surface in foliate scrolls and floral designs.

Few filigree silverwares could be found in the Qing court collection of the same period, with also no relevant records in the archives of Imperial Workshops. It is believed that filigree wares of this kind were produced in Guangzhou mainly for the overseas market, attesting to the sophistication of their craftsmanship. This “Queen’s tea service” as one of the only two complete surviving sets of export silverware from the Qianlong period, stands as a rare treasure in Chinese export art.

This gilt bronze clock is designed in imitation of European architecture, and is decorated with Western floral scrolls and red paste gems. It is structured in three layers: the centre of the front features a three-hand clock dial; the upper part is shaped as a fountain, with rotating pineapples like those in the middle section; the lower level has scenery windows on all four sides, equipped with water automaton and movement devices.

Cantonese clocks, especially those from the Qianlong period, often incorporate mechanical elements like water automaton and rotating ornaments. The water automaton is activated when the twisted glass rods are driven by gear to simulate the visual effects of running water. This clock bears “stylised” English inscriptions on its back panel, indicating the place of production as “Canton”, a means of elevating the product by emulating the signatures found on Western timepieces. Through a fusion of Western craftsmanship and local elements, Cantonese clocks reflect the region’s significance for cultural exchange between the East and West.

This six-panel folding screen has a wooden core and is decorated with gilt motifs on black lacquer ground on both sides. One side of the central panel features cityscapes with figures, including typical Lingnan residential dwellings, Chinese garden structures, boats and pagodas; while the other side depicts Chinese opera characters and scenes. This composition is arranged in a “zigzag” layout, linking various elements to create a Western imagination of Oriental splendour. Outside the central panels are bands of striding dragons amidst clouds; the inner sections feature panels of narrative figures such as birthday celebrations, surrounded by motifs of assorted treasures, flowers, and floral scrolls.

Among the export lacquerware, black lacquer with gilt decoration stands as the representative technique. It was made by directly applying gold leaf, or grinding the gold into fine powder and adhering to the patterns. During the Qing dynasty, Cantonese folding screens were widely circulated among the European royal families and private collections. Its detailed depictions of figural contours and ornate style mark this work as a rare example. 

This chair features a ruyi-shaped top rail connecting to curved armrests, with a hu-shaped splat franked by vertical posts. Beneath the seat, the recessed waist sits above the cabriole legs. It is painted entirely in black lacquer and embellished with red and gold, and decorated with lotus scrolls and bat motifs with the seat showing a landscape image.

This piece blends the structural elements of Chinese and Western chairs: the upper part draws from Chinese horseshoe-back chairs while the bottom resembles Western corner chairs. The legs occupy symmetrical positions at the centre front, back and sides, instead of four corners. Comparable designs can be seen in the early 20th-century export furniture catalogue, suggesting such models were popular at the time.

Cantonese embroidered shawls feature patterns worked on grounds of both dark and light colours. Typically square in form, they could be folded and worn in a variety of ways. From the mid to late 18th century onwards, they became a familiar presence at social gatherings and dance occasions throughout Europe and America.

The black silk shawl is densely embroidered in polychrome silk threads with figures, flowers, and other motifs, presenting a dense and tightly arranged composition in a vibrant palette. It is finished along the edges with long fringes and knotted trimmings, exemplifying the characteristic style of shawls fashionable from the late 19th to the early 20th century, and demonstrating the distinctive virtuosity of Cantonese embroidery.