The costume of China : illustrated by sixty engravings : with explanations in English and French
A folio of sixty hand-coloured stipple engravings after drawings by Pu-Qua of Canton, issued in London in 1800 by bookseller William Miller with George Henry Mason's paired English and French commentary for British buyers curious about Chinese trades and dress. Each plate isolates a single figure against blank paper: peddlers with shoulder poles and basketwork, a cobbler at his low bench, a woman with a fan, rendered in flat washes of blue, pink and buff with fine outline and no background, giving designers cut-out figures, tools, baskets and garment patterns that lift cleanly onto any ground.
