CHINESE SEAL BELIEVED TO BE FROM IMPERIAL SUMMER PALACE SACKED IN 1860, FOR SALE AT BONHAMS
SEAL MAY HEAD HOME AS SUMMER PALACE PROVENANCE ATTRACTS CHINESE BUYERS
A rare jadeite double-square seal believed to have been an Imperial seal of the Jiaqing Emperor, taken from the Summer Palace during Britain’s second Opium War with China in 1860, and brought to Britain by Liverpool born medical missionary, William Lockhart, will be sold on May 12th in London at Bonhams auction of fine Chinese Art.
The seal which measures under an inch square, is estimated to sell for £40,000 to £60,000. It is being sold with William Lockhart’s fan which is printed with a map of China on one side and a map of Beijing on the other. The location of Lockhart’s hospital in Beijing is marked with an X.
The seal inscription reads Jiaqing Chen Han ('Jiaqing Emperor's Literary and Artistic Work') and Ji Xia Yi Qing ('When does one have the leisure to delight the heart?'
Asaph Hyman, a Specialist in Bonhams Chinese Art Department, says: “The provenance of the present seal, the presence of the missionary Lockhart in Beijing certainly in 1861 and possibly during the sacking of the Yuanming yuan by the Anglo-French forces, and his unequivocal support of the actions taken by the English, is important evidence in support of the present seal's Imperial origin. We hope this seal will return to China as did the Qianlong Emperor’s personal seal which sold for £2.7m last May in London”
William Lockhart was born on 3 October 1811 in Liverpool. He trained at the Meath Hospital, Dublin, and Guy's Hospital, London. Joining the London Missionary Society, he was appointed medical missionary to Canton and sailed on 31 July 1838. Following a trip home to England, Lockhart visited Peking and worked there from 1861 to 1864. He returned to England permanently in 1864 and retired in 1867. He was elected Chairman of the Board of Directors of the London Missionary Society from 1869 to 1870. He died on 29 April 1896.
In 1860, during the Second Opium War, British and French expeditionary forces marched inland from the coast and reached Beijing on September 29. Two envoys, Henry Loch and Harry Parkes went ahead of the main force under a flag of truce to negotiate with the Prince I at Tungchow. After a day of talks, they and their small escort of British and Indian troopers (including two British envoys and a journalist for The Times) were taken prisoner. They were taken to the Board of Punishments in Beijing where they were confined and tortured. Parkes and Loch were returned after two weeks, with fourteen other survivors. Twenty British, French and Indian captives died. On the night of October 6, French units diverted from the main attack force towards the Old Summer Palace.
In 1861 Lockhart published The Medical Missionary in China: A Narrative of Twenty Years' Experience’. In the book he writes of the incident in which the hostages were taken and tortured.
"On its being known that such cruelty had been inflicted on the victims of this treachery, and that the remaining captives were not given up, immediate steps were taken for the capture of Pekin, and finally one of the gates was surrendered to the allies. The city thus lay at the mercy of its captors without any further hostilities. The palace of the Yuen-ming-yuen was burned and destroyed by the English General on the 16th of October, as a punishment to the government for the perfidious cruelty towards the prisoners, and more especially as it was in that place that the barbarous treatment towards them commenced. This was one of the last acts of the expedition. It was wholly warranted by the occasion, and signally marks the indignation of the army against those who entrapped persons into their hands, and then cruelly tortured them to death. A money compensation was also demanded, on account both of the survivors and the relatives of those who had died."
Bonhams, founded in 1793, is one of the world's oldest and largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques. The present company was formed by the merger in November 2001 of Bonhams & Brooks and Phillips Son and Neale UK. In August 2002, the company acquired Butterfields, the principal firm of auctioneers on the West Coast of America. Today, Bonhams offers more sales than any of its rivals, through two major salerooms in London: New Bond Street, and Knightsbridge, and a further four throughout the UK. Sales are also held in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Boston in the USA; and Switzerland, France, Monaco, Hong Kong, Australia and Dubai. Bonhams has a worldwide network of offices and regional representatives in 25 countries offering sales advice and valuation services in 57 specialist areas. By the end of 2009, Bonhams had become UK market leaders in ten key specialist collecting areas. For a full listing of upcoming sales, plus details of Bonhams specialist departments, go towww.bonhams.com
