Abstract / Description of output
Tradition has it that the Shugborough dinner service was presented to Commodore Anson (1697‐1762) by the European merchants of Canton in gratitude for his crew's part in extinguishing a fire that threatened the city in 1743, and the service has come to symbolise the ultimate triumph of this courageous and determined commodore over dithering and obstructive Chinese mandarins. This article argues that the link between the dinner service and the fire is actually a twentieth‐century invention, and that its story, as currently presented to us, distorts our understanding both of Canton in 1743 and of mid‐eighteenth‐century Sino‐British relations more generally.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-17 |
Journal | Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies |
Volume | 37 |
Issue number | 1 |
Early online date | 17 Jun 2013 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Mar 2014 |
Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)
- Anson
- Shugborough
- Material culture
- Porcelain
- Country houses
- China