LOT DETAILS

Materials:

ink and watercolour on paper

Size Notes:

each leaf

Description:

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Condition:

disbound

Provenance:

by descent through the family of Thomas Handasyd Perkins and subsequently the Cabot family, Boston, USA.~~This unusual volume depicts the public identifying signs of a variety of largely vanished trade and craft skills in Beijing. The identifying signs include those drawing the passer-by's attention to a pawn shop, lamp store, tea house, hat shop, saddle store, bakery, bath house, swordsmith, tobacco retailer and others. There are some particularly interesting ones identified by the present owner, including vendors of funeral boots, a green jade flower workshop, a horse-tail shop (no doubt selling the core ingredient for wigs and beards), and many others in the 18 pages contained in this lot.~~The identification to Zhou Peichun is attested by his red seal on each sheet of the document. He is known to have also painted a similarly-sized volume depicting Beijing Court costumes and rank insignia badges of military officials during the late Qing Dynasty. It is believed that this document, entitled 'A Mandarin receiving an Embassy of European Diplomats at His Court' is still in the collections of the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem.