FOLLOWING THE THREAD TO OAK SPRING: THE AFTERLIFE OF JOHN BRADBY BLAKE'S CANTON DRAWINGS. (2nd March 2018)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Goodman, Jordan
• Is Part Of: Curtis's botanical magazine. Volume 34:Part 4(2018)
• Page Start: 276
• Page End: 278
• Publication Date: 2018-03-02
• Subjects: Botany -- Periodicals; Plants, Cultivated -- Periodicals; Plants, Ornamental -- Periodicals; 580.5
• DOI: 10.1111/curt.12204
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1355-4905

Abstract

Abstract : For more than 175 years, the remarkable botanical drawings made in Canton by a Chinese artist working with the British East India Company supercargo John Bradby Blake, were handed down from generation to generation within the same family. They first appeared publicly in 1959 when the estate of Sir Frederick Cripps of Ampney Park, Gloucestershire, came up for auction. A Bristol art dealer bought the drawings, but on the other side of the Atlantic, Paul Mellon had other ideas for them. This article follows the trail from London, via Ampney Park and Bristol, to Oak Spring, Virginia.