Trading places

This pair of C19th China Trade pictures are the latest acquisition to my growing collection of art, from an auction in Chicago. Having lived for many years in Hong Kong these are a period and style that I have coveted for many years. In a previous life I worked for a financial institution which owns one of the largest collections of George Chinnery (1774-1852) oils, some of which are not dissimilar to these.

I have not yet taken delivery of these beauties, but I shall be searching them to see if that name, (or indeed any) is penned in the bottom corner of the canvas. With or without a signature, these are truly evocative of my early life, (not that I lived in the C19th), but seeing pictures of this genre, and I anticipate their arrival with a great deal of excitement, not least because of my experience with two potential shipping companies.

It would be reassuring if the shipping company could understand that Thailand is 12 hours ahead of Chicago, so that the telephone call from them at 2.30 this morning had not taken place. Funnily enough it is the third middle-of-the-night call I've had from a business in the United States, so the lack of knowledge of geography and time differences is a little worrying. Still I suppose at least this shipper, (unlike UPS), didn't think that Thailand and Bangkok were two different countries.