China, CHINESE TORTURE FIVE PUNISHMENTS SWING ROPES ~ 1842 Art Print Engraving

Description: STREET PUNISHMENT NO. 2 Artist: Thomas Allom ____________ Engraver: Unknown Note: the title in the table above is printed below the engraving AN ANTIQUE STEEL ENGRAVING MADE IN THE EARLY 1840s !! ITEM IS OVER 150 YEARS OLD! VERY OLD WORLD! INCREDIBLE DETAIL! FROM THE ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION: This man is suspended by his shoulders and ankles, in a very painful situation: at intervals, two attending officers afford some trifling alleviation of his sufferings, by supporting him with a bamboo, passed under his breast. Pencil, ink, and paper, are ready, to note down whatever he may say. This punishment, together with the preceding one, is chiefly inflicted upon such merchants as have been detected in committing frauds, impositions, or any other unwarrantable tricks of trade.The Chinese appear to be fond of public punishments: and we give two engravings from Chinese drawings in the library of the East India Company, showing two culprits undergoing the sentences awarded by the mandarins. In Plate II., the unhappy culprit is undergoing a species of torture. He is suspended from a cross-pole, supported by two uprights, by a rope passed round his neck and under his arms-his feet being tied together, and drawn up higher than the level of his head, by another. His breast rests on a long bamboo, which is held at each end by a policeman; and it is evident, that by elevating and lowering this pole, letting the prisoner fall upon it each time, the severity of the punishment is greatly increased. The Chinese punishment of death is generally carried into effect by decapitating the culprit: and that punishment is very dexterously performed. Mr. Meadows, the interpreter to the English embassy in China, was a witness, when at Canton in July, 1852, to the manner in which the Tartar officials beheaded some of the rebels (followers of Tai-ping), who fell into their power. The place of execution was a low room, entered by a strong iron-bound door. At one end was a species of shed, where the superintending mandarins sat, and before which a fire of fragrant sandal wood was kept burning, to conceal the horrible effluvia arising from decomposed heads which had not been removed. Some of the prisoners walked in to this Golgotha; others were brought in in baskets, and tumbled out upon the floor; and there they lay motionless-the narrator could not tell whether from terror or previous punishment. A man stood behind each prisoner, and having placed him in a kneeling posture, he was compelled to put his head forward, his face inclining to the ground, his hands were placed behind his back, and grasped tightly by the attendant policeman. He was made to keep this posture--which was a most painful one-till the executioner, with a sharp sword, struck off his head, which he did at one blow. One man was crucified before he was beheaded. He was bound to a wooden cross fixed against the wall; and the first horrible operation was to cut off the flesh from his forehead, breast, and extremities, with a short knife! When this was removed, he was taken down from the cross and instantly beheaded. Such are the modes adopted by this "celestial people," as they term themselves, to punish those who offend against their laws. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Thomas Allom (1804-1872) was a Topographical Illustrator and Architect. He was born in London, England and in 1819 he was apprenticed to the architect Francis Goodwin. He produced designs for buildings, churches, workhouses and a military asylum in London and carried them out himself as well as working with the architect Sir Charles Barry on numerous projects. He found time to produce an enormous number of views, and like his contemporary William Henry Bartlett, illustrated places rather than people or still life. Allom was a founder member of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). He died at the age of 68 in Barnes, London, England. Though he traveled widely in the course of his work, Allom produced his drawings of China, probably his most successful series, by merely crossing the road from the house in Hart Street to the British Museum. It was obviously an economical solution for his publisher, who had managed to convince himself that 'Having dwelt in "the land of the cypress and myrtle", Mr. Allom's talents were fully matured for the faithful delineation of Oriental scenery. His designs were based entirely on the work of earlier artists who had traveled in China, and although he has been justifiably criticised for failure in some instances to acknowledge the original sketches, Allom displays considerable resourcefulness and ingenuity in the way he borrowed and gathered his material from them. Acknowledgement was made to three amateurs, eight of the plates to Lieutenant Frederick White R.M., fourteen to Captain Stoddart, R.N. and two to R. Varnham (who was the son of a tea planter and a pupil of George Chinnery (1774-1852). Nine designs are taken entirely or partially from Sketches of China and the Chinese (1842) by August Borget (1808-1877)," which had been published in England the previous year. He made neat pencil sketches from an album of Chinese landscapes water colours by anonymous Chinese artists that he then turned into fourteen designs. "Another group are based on a set of anonymous drawings that show the silk manufacturing process. Allom made particularly ingenious use of the drawings of William Alexander (1767-1818). Having first traced over a number of Alexander's watercolors in the British Museum (a practice which would certainly be frowned upon today) he used these tracings' either in part or combination in about twenty of his designs. But he never uses exactly the same scene as Alexander without altering the viewpoint or changing the details, his knowledge of perspective enabling him 'to walk round' a view of a building as in his Western Gates of Peking, which takes a viewpoint to the other side of the river. He uses background to Alexander's more peaceful seascape of 1794, The Forts of Anunghoi saluting the 'Lion' in the Bocca Tigris, and updates it to an event sketched by White during the First Opium War of 1841 when the Imogene and Andromache under Lord Napier forced a passage through the straits. Two of Alexander's drawings are sometimes combined - his Chinamen playing 'Shitticock' (sic) are placed by Allom in front of the Pagoda of Lin-ching-shih taken from another Alexander drawing. The prints were a welcome addition to Fisher's series and became the best known source on the subject of China. Until the Treaty of Nanking in 1842 China had been almost totally inaccessible to the European traveller but the first Opium War had created a new sort of interest. The admiration of the 18th and early 19th centuries for Chinese culture and decoration was replaced by a more critical and inquiring attitude. Until photography gave a more accurate picture, a great many people's perception of China and the Chinese people was probably influenced by Allom's idealised images. An interesting use of these, on the ceramic pot lids produced by F. & R. Pratt and Co. throughout the second half of the 19th century, demonstrate how Allom's images, themselves derived from such a variety of sources, became in turn a design source for other ornamental applications. Because of their decorative appeal wide use is still made of reproductions of these illustrations. SIZE: Image size is 5 inches by 7 1/2 inches. Print size is 7 inches by 10 inches. CONDITION: Condition is excellent. Bright and clean. Blank on reverse. SHIPPING: Buyers to pay shipping/handling, domestic orders receives priority mail, international orders receive regular mail. We pack properly to protect your item! Please note: the terms used in our auctions for engraving, heliogravure, lithograph, print, plate, photogravure etc. are ALL prints on paper, NOT blocks of steel or wood. "ENGRAVINGS", the term commonly used for these paper prints, were the most common method in the 1700s and 1800s for illustrating old books, and these paper prints or "engravings" were inserted into the book with a tissue guard frontis, usually on much thicker quality rag stock paper, although many were also printed and issued as loose stand alone prints. So this auction is for an antique paper print(s), probably from an old book, of very high quality and usually on very thick rag stock paper. EXTREMELY RARE IN THIS EXCELLENT CONDITION!

Price: 19.99 USD

Location: New Providence, New Jersey

End Time: 2025-02-01T18:48:30.000Z

Shipping Cost: 7.95 USD