Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
58.43 |
Object Name |
Block, Printing |
Title |
Chinese Printing Block |
Artist |
Unknown |
Place of Origin |
China |
Date |
ca. 1840 |
Description |
Printing block with eight columns of Chinese script, nine rows. Handwritten notes on back (some illegible): "For [?] Dunglison/Specimen of Chinese block cutting From W.B. Driver MD Macao July 1840" and "Presented to Am Philos Soc by S. Dunglison" and "5 March 18--" |
Label |
This Chinese printing block was given to the donor Robley Dunglison by W.B. Driver of Macao. Dunglison was a British physician and teacher, who became the first professor of medicine at the University of Virignia in 1825. He was also a member of the APS and taught at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia. This printing block is a fragment, one of several used around 1840 to print this text, which is possibly a speech or decree. In 1897 the printing block was translated, and the text appears to be a proposal to take the “ships, goods, and merchandise” from the “barbarians,” likely the English. The text also refers to the Kwangtung (Guangdong) Governor General, and the imperial commissioner. In the late 1830s and 1840s Kwangtung was the site of illegal opium importation by the British. This trade led to the first Opium War between China and Britain, precipitated in large part by the strictness of Lin Zexu, the imperial commissioner to Kwangtung, and the desire by the British for ports along the Chinese coast. The defeat of China led to the Treaty of Nanjing of 1842, whereby China ceded ports to Britain and other countries, setting the stage for a period of intense imperialism in China by European powers. This text likely alludes to the treatment of China by foreign powers at this time. |
Material |
Wood |
Dimensions |
H-0.875 W-3.938 L-4 inches |
Credit line |
American Philosophical Society. Gift of Robley Dunglison, 5 March 1841. |
Search Terms |
19th century nineteenth century printing China |