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FOLLOWING THE THREAD TO OAK SPRING: THE AFTERLIFE OF JOHN BRADBY BLAKE'S CANTON DRAWINGS
Author(s) -
Goodman Jordan
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
curtis's botanical magazine
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1467-8748
pISSN - 1355-4905
DOI - 10.1111/curt.12204
Subject(s) - estate , afterlife , art , spring (device) , art history , history , visual arts , engineering , literature , mechanical engineering , political science , law
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.