$8,888
Sunqua (Chinese, 19th Century) Portrait Miniature of George Washington Heard, Jr. of Ipswich, Massachusetts, The back panel inscribed "SUNQUA," Watercolor on ivory, c. 1850, 4 5/8 x 3 3/8 in., in original Chinese carved hardwood frame, (minor specks of paint loss). Literature: This portrait miniature is illustrated and discussed in The Decorative Arts of the China Trade , by Carl L. Crossman, the Antiques Collector's Club, publishers, 1991, pp. 150-51. Note: According to the Ipswitch Historical Society and Museum's website, George Washington Heard Jr. (1837-75) was "the fifth child of George Washington Heard (1793-1863) and Elizabeth Ann Farley Heard (1802-65), George Jr. spent his boyhood attending school in Ipswich, Derry, and Exeter to prepare him for Harvard College. He entered Harvard, but completed his formal education in Geneva, Switzerland, according to Heard genealogist Edward W. Hanson. Perhaps his love for mountain climbing developed in the Swiss Alps, because in 1855 Heard became one of the first Americans to scale Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in France. In 1859, Heard went to China as a private secretary to the American delegation at the negotiation of the Treaty of Tientsin. Hanson writes that he 'was present with Mr. Ward, the American minister to China, at the attack of the Peiho forts by the English which he described in letters home to his parents.' Afterward, he joined his uncle's company, Augustine Heard & Co., as manager of the trading Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2011-03-06
