[CHINESE EXPORT ART] YOUQUA. (fl. 1840-1870). Album of ten original Chinese costume studies rendered in gouache on pith paper...

Description:

[CHINESE EXPORT ART]
YOUQUA. (fl. 1840-1870). Album of ten original Chinese costume studies rendered in gouache on pith paper. Canton: Youqua Painter, Old Street, No. 34, circa 1850. Silk brocade album (as issued), the verso of the front free endpaper with Youqua's label, the drawings mounted to the leaves with silk ribbons, the drawings (sight) 10 3/8 x 6 3/8 inches (26.5 x 16 cm). The album quite worn, one drawing with a loss to the painted surface, some marginal defects. Laid into the rear are two drawings on silk, and two paintings on skeletonized leaves.

Youqua was a painter specializing in such albums for export. His clientele were Western merchants and travellers to China. Based in Canton, he also had a workshop in Hong Kong. "Old Street" on the label here is probably Old China Street in Canton. He also sold oil paintings on canvas, but the present albums are painted on the pith of Tetrapanax papyrifer, the rice paper plant, a medium commonly used for export albums such as the present. See C. L. Crossmann The Decorative Arts of the China Trade Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, pp. 200-202, and color plate 70 and pls. 105 and 106 for examples of Youqua's pith paper paintings and label.

C Property of a Massachusetts Gentleman
Estimate $1,200-1,800

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