A Perspective View of that great City, Canton, in China.

Title

A Perspective View of that great City, Canton, in China.

Description

View of Guangzhou (Kanton, Canton), detailed view of all houses and streets.

ca. 1760

Artist

Sayer Robert (1725-1794)

Robert Sayer (1725–1794) was one of the most influential and commercially successful English publishers and dealers of maps and charts in the 18th century. His famous workshop was located at No. 53 Fleet Street in London – for decades the premier address for British cartography. Although he was not a cartographer himself, he shrewdly acquired valuable printing plates. He became famous for publishing the highly innovative charts of Captain James Cook and the atlases of Samuel Dunn ("A New Atlas of the Mundane System"), thereby significantly shaping geographical knowledge during the American Revolutionary War. Depending on the era, his maps bear different publisher names; following a partnership known as Sayer & Bennett, the company was continued after his death in 1794 by his successors under the world-renowned name Laurie & Whittle. Around 1765, he also invented the so-called "harlequinades" – the very first flap-based pop-up books for children.

Historical Description

Guangzhou is the capital and most populous city of the province of Guangdong in southern China. Panyu was established on the east bank of the Pearl River.The Old Book of Tang described Guangzhou as an important port in southern China. Incorporated into the Han Empire, Panyu became a provincial capital. From 1699 to 1714, the French and British East India Companies sent a ship or two each year. The first independent American ship arrived in 1784 and the first colonial Australian one in 1788.[citation needed] By that time, Guangzhou was one of the world's great ports, organised under the Canton System. The main exports were tea and porcelain. As a meeting place of merchants from all over the world, Guangzhou became a major contributor to the rise of the modern global economy.