Expert’s note:
Oil paintings depicting the various stages of the production of Chinese commodities such as tea, silk, or porcelain are rare. The majority of Chinese export paintings depicting these subjects are executed in gouache or watercolor on paper, of later date, and smaller in size.

China, circa 1800-1840. Oil on canvas. The first painting depicts several farmers bringing the tea from the fields in large baskets and handing the tea leaves over to ladies who are sorting them by sieving. The second painting features a group of women seated at a table, sorting the tea leaves, and two men in the foreground bringing more tea leaves. (2)

Provenance: Bonhams London, 22 March 2005, lot 233, sold for GBP 4,800 or approx. EUR 10,000 (converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing). Collection of Brigitte Shelswell-White, Bantry House, West Cork, Ireland, acquired from the above, and thence by descent in the family. The frames and canvases are inscribed with inventory numbers to the reverse. Each frame with an old label to the reverse, ‘The renovation of this picture was executed by F. J. Harris & Son of 14 Green Street, Bath 389 May 1947 who will be pleased to give personal advice free, on all work of art’ and inscribed below ‘B. Shellswell-White, Bantry, May 2012’. Brigitte Shelswell-White was born in Austria and moved to Ireland in the 1960s, where she married her husband Egerton Shelswell-White. She is a trained picture restorer and spent years renovating her husband’s family home, Bantry House.
Condition: Fine condition with old wear, browning, minor creasing, one painting with few touchups, and the other with restorations to the edges and touchups. The frames with nicks, scratches, and nail holes, some restoration and touchups, and rubbing to the gilt.

Dimensions: Image size 60.8 x 46.4 cm, Size incl. frame 67 x 53.3 cm, Image size 60.7 x 45.8 cm, Size incl. frame 68.8 x 53.7 cm

Each set within a gold-lacquered frame. (2)

In the early seventeenth century, the Dutch India Company introduced Chinese tea to Europe, creating a global market that remains today. Farmers all over China grew tea as one of various crops on their small land holdings. These crops were then transported across mountains to wholesale centers where dealers from China and Europe gathered to select the teas they wanted. The tea was further transported to ports. On its arrival, a second selection process took place, with agents acting for the various companies, delivering their goods to European and American countries.

Literature comparison:
The representations of the various steps in the growing and processing of tea are almost identical in Chinese export paintings from the late 18^th to the mid-19^th centuries. Compare paintings number 5 and 7 from the album of ‘The growing and processing of tea’ by an unknown artist, dated circa 1820, size 19 x 27.9 cm, in the collection of the Mystic Seaport Museum, and illustrated in Carl Crossman, The China Trade, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, p. 440-441. The pictures are described as “5. Bringing the tea from the fields for sorting and drying”, and “7. Drying, sorting, and pounding the leaves”.

Auction result comparison:
Type: Related
Auction: Sotheby’s New York, 18 March 2008, lot 258
Estimate: USD 100,000 or approx. EUR 143,000 converted and adjusted for inflation at the time of writing
Description: Chinese School, Qing dynasty, circa 1800, The Manufacture of Silk and the Manufacture of Tea: A Rare Pair of Chinese Export Paintings
Expert remark: Compare the closely related manner of painting and subject, with one of the paintings also depicting the manufacture of tea. Note the size (75.6 x 109.2 cm).