Second Opium War (5 results)

Black and white wood engraving prepared for The Illustrated London News (trimmed) 16.7 x 27.7cms (including caption and margins), a few marginal spots, unrelated text on the verso, the image in very good condition. Dramatic image of an incident on the Canton (now Pearl) River near Guangzhou, between a Chinese galley and a British vessel from H.M.S. Amethyst, during the Second Opium War (1857-1859).

Black and white full-page engraving on a newspaper leaf, 28 x 40 cm, related text on the verso, one small marginal edge-tear, upper corner creased but the image in very good condition. Fine engraving of the combined Expeditionary Force at its encampment at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon, nearing the culmination of the Second Opium War.The descriptive text notes on the verso : "The expeditionary force is arriving rapidly; every day troop-ships come into the harbour. Probyn's horse (Sikhs), to the number of five hundred, are encamped on the mainland; Armstrong guns also are there. I never saw anything more picturesque than the camp: the scenery is beautiful." (see detail in attached image). From the Estate of the late collector and scholar Arthur Hacker.

Hand-coloured lithograph, central fold 23 x 34.6 cms (image); 29 x 39 (sheet), descriptive text in French beneath the image, lower corner chipped (no loss to image or text), small marginal edge tears (not encroaching into the image) sheet a little age-toned, but in very good condition. Rare hand-coloured lithograph depicting the French infantry charge against the Pei-ho fortifications during the Second Opium War (1856-1860). A defining moment of the conflict, the fall of the Taku Forts (August 1860) marked the final major hurdle for Allied forces. The victory cleared the path to Beijing, forcing the surrender of 22 defensive positions along the river and ultimately leading to the occupation of the capital and the signing of new trade treaties.

First edition, with the scarce wrappers retained, of this official French account of the Franco-British expedition northwards to Beijing, together with a well-preserved first edition of the accompanying atlas volume. The detailed narrative encompasses such pivotal moments as the third battle of the Taku Forts, the taking of Tianjin, the burning of the Summer Palace, and the battles of Zhangjiawan and Tongzhou. The finely engraved atlas includes maps of the Chinese coast, the December 1857 capture of Canton, the occupation of Tianjin by Anglo-French naval forces in May 1859, and the Western camp at Chefoo. Four other maps, all folding, show the Franco-British landing at Peh-tang, the battles of Zhangjiawan and Baliqiao, and the route of the Western advance from the mouth of the Peiho to Beijing. These works were produced at the behest of the Dépôt de la Guerre, the country's principal military archive and cartographic institution. Between 1852 and 1867, the Dépôt was run by Antoine Lucien Blondel (1801-1883), a major military cartographer. From 1859, Blondel reported to Jacques Louis César Alexandre Randon (1795-1871), a veteran of Napoleon's European campaigns and Marshal of France from 1856. Cordier (2nd edition) 2496. Two works. Atlas comprising 8 maps (4 folding) with occasional hand-colouring, all engraved by Erhard Schièble. Relation: quarto (281 x 200 mm). Mid-20th-century green boards (Claude Honnelaitre), brown spine label lettered in gilt, original green wrappers tipped-in, top and bottom edge trimmed, fore edge untrimmed. Atlas: folio. Original green cloth-backed orange boards, front cover lettered in black. Wrappers well-preserved with some staining and a few small losses, atlas volume with soiling to boards, couple of surface losses on rear cover, and wear to extremities, text and maps clean, atlas with just occasional foxing. Very good copies indeed.

Highly engaging album, the core of which comprises 26 sketches of Tientsin (Tianjin) in 1861, sketched by Ensign Francis Sadleir Brereton, the year following the conclusion of the Second Opium War; with additional views of Singapore and Java. A unique visual record of Qing dynasty Tianjin, as seen through the eyes of a young British army officer. Brereton (1838-1911) was commissioned ensign in the Royal North Gloucestershire Militia in November 1855, transferring to the 2nd Battalion, 60th Rifles in December of the same year. Even among sharpshooters he was clearly a crack shot, serving as inspector of musketry and winning both the Ladies' Purse and Challenge Prize. In 1857 he sailed with his battalion to South Africa. Following service in India during the Rebellion and in China during the Second Opium War, he resigned his commission in 1865. He afterwards practised as an architect with his father-in-law, Frederick Beeston, then independently as an architect and surveyor. In 1889 he was elected to serve on the first London County Council. During the 18th century drawing masters were established at the military training centres at Woolwich, Chatham, High Wycombe, and Addiscombe, with the aim of instructing officer cadets in drawing and watercolour. Although there is no record of Brereton having studied in this way his sketchbook comprises an accomplished series of views very much in the tradition of the soldier-artist. In light of his subsequent career, his interest in architectural detail is evident in a number of highly worked and painstaking sketches of temples and cityscapes, occasionally employing dense hachures and some interesting compositional framing. To the modern eye they have a haunted quality reminiscent of the deserted vistas of Giorgio de Chirico. Views are, in the main, captioned on verso, some at lower right of image, all of Tientsin, each dated 1861 and initialled, unless otherwise noted: [View of traditional roundhouses in a landscape] "Head Quarters Square, 2/60th R[oyal] Rifles" "South West angle, Tien Tsin Wall" "Mahomedan Temple" "Bell Temple" "Treaty Joss House" "Pallisir's Grave" (Lieut. John R. Palliser, 2. Battalion, 1st (Royal) Foot, died of fever after taking part in the capture of the Taku Forts) "Old Castle near Tien Tsin" [View of wall and fort] [View of fortified tower] [Three temples] "South Forts" (double-sheet panorama) "Angles of Treaty Joss House" "Treaty Joss House" "Tien Tsin from West Gate" "West Gate from the Wall" "Tien Tsin from East Gate" "Tien Tsin from North Gate" "North Gate Tien Tsin from street" "Tien Tsin from South Gate" "English burial ground & Treaty Joss House from South Gate" "Chinese Graves French Side Tien Tsin" "South Forts Tien Tsin" "South Taku Fort" "2nd North Taku Fort" "Chinamans Houses French Side Tien Tsin" 59th Regiment graveyard "Singapore" (seascape), "Singapore, Nov. 16, 1861" (double-sheet panorama of the coastline, showing junks and ships) Java (double-sheet panorama with shipping in the foreground) [View of palm trees in a mountainous landscape] Plus another 26 views and sketches (6 double-sheet) executed later, with appealing panoramas in the west of Scotland (Dunoon, Tarbert, Dumbarton, Bowling) and elsewhere. The album is accompanied by a typed letter by the popular boys author Lt.-Col. F. S. Brereton (1872-1957), reading in full: "These sketches were made by my father Ensign Frank Sadleir Brereton, 2nd Battn. 60th Rifles, when on service with his regiment in China, 1861. The first action in which he was engaged was, I believe, an attack on the Taku Forts, when he and a small command went over the side and waded ashore" (undated, personal stationery). Albums such as this are certainly not common on the open market and this is a particularly attractive exemplar. Landscape octavo (105 x 182 mm). Contemporary dark red roan sketchbook by Henry Penny (metal clasp stamped with his name, label to front pocket), gilt patterned endpapers, marbled edges; some 60 leaves in all (26 with views of Tientsin and environs) plus blanks, one of two leaves toward the end excised. Housed in a burgundy cloth flat-back box by the Chelsea Bindery. Loss of leather at foot of spine, minor scuffing, expected rubbing and signs of handling, otherwise remarkably well preserved.