Prints

“Clippers in the China Trade. To Alexander Matheson Esqre. This print of the ‘Falcon’, F. Jauncey Esq. Commander and other clippers on the China-Coast… is respectfully dedicated by his most obedient servant Edmund Fry”.

Captain Jauncey surveyed where he was trading on the China Coast and published a number of charts. The ‘Falcon’ became an opium clipper in 1840 after Jardine Matheson bought her. Accordingly she (along with the other ships included in the background) flies a pennant from her maintop bearing the company house flag (white saltire on blue background). Signed by artist as “N.M.Condy” on plate (in the extreme foreground in the waves at right).  Scene on the South China coast dedicated to Sir Alexander Matheson, first baronet (1805-86), merchant and banker. Matheson was partly educated in Canton (Guangzhou) before joining his uncle's firm of Jardine, Matheson & Co., eventually leading the firm as senior partner and developing it into a commercial giant in the Far East. Jardine, Matheson & Co. imported a range of commodities to Britain, including tea and silks, and exported coal, machinery, metals, wine and liquors to the Far East.

The lithograph was done by Thomas Goldsworthy Dutton.
 

Scarce print.

Condition

Trimmed along lower edge, losing publication line. Repairs on edges.

Reference

National Maritime Museum, Greenwich