Descrizione

Lithographed map, 374 x 445 mm. Black lithograph augmented with hand-painted colour in yellow, red, and blue. With notes in a contemporary hand adding further detail to the battlefield. Tipped onto matting and framed. The Chinese city of Zhenjiang in the midst of the First Opium War (or Anglo-Chinese War), annotated in colour and with manuscript additions. The plan depicts the British military operation in the Battle of Chinkiang (Zhenjiang) on 21 July 1842, which resulted in a loss so devastating to Qing Chinese forces that their military commander, Hai Ling, committed suicide, and the Daoguang Emperor sued for peace, ending the war. The ensuing Treaty of Nanking, in some ways a direct result of the Battle of Chinkiang, resulted in the ceding of Hong Kong from Qing China to the British. - Annotations in an early hand add fresh information on the positions of the British in the pivotal battle: these include the location of the British ship the HMS Auckland in the Yangtse River (the ship is even drawn in), and precise locations where the ship shelled the defensive walls of Zhenjiang "on the ramparts where Tartar troops opposed part of the 2nd Brigade". Also added in the same hand are positions of other British troops not identified in the printed map key, rounding out the visualization of this particularly key moment in the Opium Wars. - Not examined out of frame. Gentle creasing, one very faint burn mark to the top edge affecting 3 mm of paper (not affecting the plan itself); altogether in excellent condition.