Pithpaper

10 albums, small oblong folio or folio (23 x 32 cm, or the reverse); 123 watercolour and gouache paintings on pith paper, some with captions and numbered (in Chinese characters and English), each mounted on paper with a pale blue silk border, each album with 'Tingqua' written in ink to upper flyleaf, some worming, stains and loss to paintings; uniformly bound in contemporary Chinese silk brocade with silk ties; housed in a contemporary Chinese silk brocade box (34.5 x 25 x 17 cm) with hinged lid and silk ribbon handles, box rather worn.

The 10 albums comprise:
1. Views of Canton, Whampoa, Bocca Tigris (Humen), and Macau (4)
2. Portraits of the Emperor, Governor, Ambassador, General, and their spouses (12)
3. The stages of life: birth, nursing, head shaving, school, marriage, exams, worship, at court, official travel, extended family, 60th birthday, death (12)
4. Female occupations, including silk winding, embroidery, make up, clothes making, preparing hemp, dividing thread, weaving, and painting on silk (12)
5. Scenes of women at leisure (6) and arrangements of flowers in baskets (6)
6. Studies of flowers and insects (12)
7. Studies of shells (6), and types of boats (6)
8. Fishes (12
9. Tea cultivation (12), and street traders (10)
10. Chinese furniture and household objects (13)

4to album (33 x 26 cm)l; 24 gouaches on pith paper, (each one 30.5 x 20.4 cm) , all mounted on paper and framed with a pale blue silk fabric border; bookplate, 3 plates with small tears ( approx 2 cm length at margins); bound in contemporary patterned decorated silk boards, some pencilling on front pastedown ; overall an attractive copy.