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Singapore and the China Seas, saved from the bonfire -新加坡和中国海域——拯救于“炉火”之中

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Singapore and the China Seas, saved from the bonfire
22 March 2010

WILTSHIRE auctioneers Netherhampton Salerooms were celebrating a new house record on March 3 after a disbound album of Far Eastern topographical drawings sold for £43,000.


The 40 finely executed pencil and ink sketches, titled Views of the China Seas & Macao taken during Capt. D. Ross' Surveys by M. Houghton, had been plucked by the vendor from her grandmother's hands as they were cast onto a bonfire.

The immediate stimulus for surveys such as this, undertaken in the early 19th century along the coastlines of the Middle and Far East, was the desire to aid trade through local knowledge. Specifically this meant knowledge of coastal geography in regions where local sailors, with experience of the shallows and channels, could outwit the less certain ships of the East India Company.

The name of Captain Daniel Ross is well known in the history of hydrography, but research suggests some confusion exists between two men who shared the same name, rank and profession.

The better documented of the two is Captain Daniel Ross (1807-40), who held the position of Marine Surveyor General during the first complete survey of the Gulf coast by the Bombay Marine.

However, the Captain Daniel Ross we are dealing with here was his father, sent by the East India Company to Cochin China to survey the Paracel Islands in 1807. His charts were finally published in 1821, six years before he died as a privateer in 1827.

Judging by other items included in the sale (including a mid 19th century Anglo-Indian portraitminiature of Captain William Hercules Ross of the 30th Bengal Native Infantry sold at £1100) the owner had a connection to the Ross family.

But, while sufficientlyconfident of the importance of the consignment to picture the title page on the cover of the catalogue and suggest an estimate of £2000-3000, Netherhampton specialist Bill Hoade had been unable to positivelyidentify the other protagonist in the short period of time between consignment and cataloguing (see last week's Letters page).

M. Houghton's identity only emerged later in reference to 20 watercolours of the Coast of Oman and the Trucial States by one Lieutenant Houghton in the British Museum.

Michael Houghton was a career sailor and accomplishedmarine draughtsman who worked under both generations of the Ross family (father and son). He would rise to become a lieutenant and in 1833 would himself become Marine Surveyor General in Bombay. But, born in 1797, he was only 18 years old when he embarked upon the survey of the China Seas.

The arrangement of the drawings in the album is not chronological and - as sketchbook pages vary in size from 3 x 4in (7.5 x 10cm) to 8 x 14in (20 x 35cm) - most probably represent a personal selection of "on the spot" drawings from a larger body of work. However, according to the contemporary titles and other inscriptions to the wash line mounts, they cover a fairly short period between 1816 and 1819. There are tantalising references.

Both the title page and a drawing dated 1816 of Hysansue Harbour in the Yellow Sea includes reference to HMS Alceste, raising the possibility that Ross and Houghton were on the voyage that took Lord Amherst (1773-1857), in his role as Ambassador Extraordinary to the court of the Emperor Jiaqing.

The primary object of his mission (to establish more satisfactorycommercial relations between the East India Company and the Chinese) was frustrated.

Amherst refused to perform the kowtow and was denied an audience with the emperor while, after a cruise along the coast of Korea and to the Ryukyu Islands, his ship was wrecked on rocks in the Java Sea and the broken vessel burnt by Malay Dyaks.

Two more of the collection's highlights are a fine large-format drawing of the Franciscan monastery at Macao 'taken from the window of the Swedish Factory' and the view of Singapore from the Rocky Point, 1819- the founding date of modern-day Singapore.

It was in February 1819 that Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) signed a rudimentary treaty between the nominal chiefs of the island of Singapore that called for the exclusivity of trade and the British protection of the area. To the mount was the additionalinscription: This was the appearance of Singapore when they first landed to form a settlement.

Such a rich seam of material ripe for further study generated great interest and bidding from national and international clients in the room and on telephones. The buyer, at a multi-estimate £43,000 (plus 15 per cent buyer's premium) was a member of the London trade.

3月3日，英国威尔特郡的纳斯汉本拍卖行热烈庆祝一笔新交易的成功。此次交易的藏品是一部品相欠佳的远东地形手绘集。交易金额为43000英镑。
40幅草图是用铅笔和墨水描绘的，十分精致。这组图是由M汉特在Capt.D.Ross勘测期间绘制而成的，M.汉特将其命名为"中国海域与澳门风景集锦"。这组图曾经差点在炉火中毁于一旦。幸而其持有者在最后一刻从她的祖母手中抢夺过来，使其得以保存至今。
推动这些勘测（如早在19世纪就开始着手的对中东和远东海岸线的勘察）的积极因素是希望通过研究当地地域知识促进贸易发展。更明确地说即通过掌握那些当地海员聚居地的沿海地域文化能够增加海员的航海经验，能够有效的对抗小部分东印度公司的船只。
丹尼尔.罗斯是水文地理学史上的著名人物，但是研究时出现两个"丹尼尔.罗斯"，他们不仅名字相同，且拥有相同的军衔和职业。这着实易造成混淆。（译者注：其实是爷儿俩）
这两个"丹尼尔.罗斯"的资料中，履历相对优秀一点的是：丹尼尔.罗斯上尉（1807-40），他在邦培.玛尹首次完成对卡夫海岸的勘察期间，任职海军勘探上将。
然而，我们在这里所提到的罗斯上尉是上面所谈到的丹尼尔.罗斯的父亲。1807年，他被东印度公司派遣到中国勘测帕拉塞尔群岛（译者注：现在中国的西沙群岛）。他的著述于1821年出版，也就是他去世前6年。他去世于1827年，那时他的身份是一名普通的士兵。
此次拍卖的鉴定工作还包括该藏品持有者同罗斯家族的关系。其中一幅威廉姆.赫肯.罗斯上尉的肖像画也在鉴定工作之列（这幅画作于19世纪中叶，是由一名英裔印度人为其所作。该藏品持有者是一名30岁的孟加拉步兵。拍卖价格为1100英镑）。
但是，当大家对该手稿的重要价值充满足够的信心，并附上写有标题和2000-3000英镑的建议价格时，纳斯汉本拍卖行的专家比尔.弘德却无法在短期内准确的在目录编纂和拍卖行之间鉴定出其它的重要角色。（请参看上周有关信纸的报道）
M．汉特的身份鉴定是一个名叫汉特的海军上尉在大英博物馆完成的。他研究参阅了20幅阿曼海岸和TrucialStates之后，才完成了对M.汉特身份的鉴定。
米歇尔.汉特是一名职业水手且完成了海军服役，他曾服役于罗斯家族的两代人（父子两代）。他曾晋升为海军上尉。1833年在孟买，他成为海军勘测上将。值得一提的是，出生于1797年的他，在中国海进行勘测时年仅18岁。
这些手绘草稿并未按时间前后排列， 而且，其规格各式各样：从3 x 4in (7.5 x 10cm)到8 x 14in (20 x 35cm)不等。可能大部分描绘只是基于个人对工作的理解和以个人视角所选取的角度作为出发点，但是，根据同期文献对洗线山峰的记载，这些画稿囊括了从1810到1819年相当短的一个时期。这有钽铁矿作为参考。
Hysansue Harbour的标题纸和一张标于1816年的画稿，在黄海包括涉及到HMS Alceste,标记1816, 增加了罗斯和houghton曾航协同Amherst 君主（1773-1857）一同航海的可能性，Amherst 君主的角色则是作为特派大使参见嘉庆皇帝。
他的此行的主要目的即和东印度公司和中国进一步建立的商业关系）没有达到。
Amherst拒绝卑躬屈膝并被拒绝给皇帝当随臣。后来，当他沿着韩国海岸乘船巡游到达Ryukyu群岛的过程中，他的船在爪哇海被岩石撞毁了，这次海难马来西亚Dyaks蒙受了巨大的损失。
此次交易的藏品之中，有两个最大的亮点。一个是一幅命名为"开启于瑞典工厂窗户"的关于澳门Franciscan 修道院的精致的设计稿，另一个是从岩石上一点观察到的新加坡景观，1819-现代时期新加坡的建造"。
1819年二月，Thomas Stamford Raffles (1781-1826) 与新加坡岛的名义头领之间签定了一个基本的协议即实行专有贸易且成为大英保护区。言外之意是，第一次在这片土地上形成新的居住区的时候，只是披着新加坡的外衣。
这些丰富地素材对未来的进一步研究引起极大的兴趣，本国的和国际的客户纷纷亲临拍卖行或通过电话进行投标。买者是伦敦贸易成员，其投标价格高于43000英镑（加上15%购买保险费）。



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