One of the earliest views of the English colony of Hong Kong

A rare view of Victoria, drawn for printing by John Cooke Bourne (1814-96) and printed by Standige & Co, published only four years after the Treaty of Nanking of 1842 ceded the island in perpetuity to Great Britain. It shows the settlement from across the bay, with both European ships and junks. Bourne is more famous for his lithographs of the railway boom, with views of the construction of the London and Birmingham Railway and the Great Western Railway. Although he travelled to Russia, there is no evidence of a visit to China.