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The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle. First Edition.

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The Brother to the Moon’s Visit to the Court of Queen Vic, Richard Doyle

A rare and visually remarkable early Victorian comic panorama, complete with twenty-four hand-colored plate sides and both original pictorial covers, here in a handsome binding by Riviere & Son. Issued in the immediate aftermath of the First Opium War, the panorama imagines a state visit by the Chinese emperor, empress, and their fantastical retinue to Queen Victoria’s court. Its crowded processions, anthropomorphic teapots, dragons, mandarins, courtiers, and royal caricatures make it a spectacular example of nineteenth-century visual satire, as well as a revealing and troubling record of contemporary British attitudes toward Qing China.

The procession repeatedly invokes the twenty-one-million-dollar indemnity imposed on China by the Treaty of Nanking. Among its captioned episodes are the Celestial Guards and Band, jugglers, lantern bearers, porcelain presents, opium smokers, Hong merchants, the “Brother to the Moon’s” presentation to Queen Victoria, Court Day, and the Council. Fores advertised the work as comprising twenty-four subjects and as a companion to The Christening of Prince Taffy. Designed by the eighteen-year-old Richard Doyle shortly before he joined the staff of Punch, the plates were etched by William Kohler, whose name appears on the pictorial upper cover.

London: Messrs. Fores, [1843; often dated 1842]. Oblong octavo, twenty-four hand-colored etched plate sides on twelve leaves printed recto and verso, with Fores publisher’s advertisements. Both original pictorial covers bound in at front and rear: the upper cover bearing the title and Kohler’s signature, and the lower cover with a vignette of the Chinese pavilion and Fores’s imprint. Later full tan calf by Riviere & Son (stamped on the edge of the first blank), covers ruled in gilt, broad decorative gilt turn-ins, and marbled endpapers.

The later binding is rubbed and scuffed, with surface abrasions, wear along the edges and joints, and worn corners; nevertheless sound and attractive. The original pictorial covers and panorama leaves show expected toning, scattered spotting and soiling, and occasional handling marks. A couple small closed tears near gutter. The hand coloring remains lively and the satirical scenes retain tremendous visual impact. A complete copy of a rare and fragile panorama, retaining its original pictorial covers and presented in a signed Riviere binding.

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