JULES ITIER daguerreotype China

JULES ITIER (1802-1877)
The Pagoda Occupied by Qiying During the Negotiations for the Treaty of Whampoa on October 24, 1844
Photograph taken during Théodore de Lagrené's diplomatic mission in the region of Macao to negotiate the Treaty of Whampoa (Huangpu), signed on October 24, 1844. The pagoda was Qiying's dwelling during the negotiations.
Itier made a few daguerreotypes directly related to the objective of this historic diplomatic mission: two others, in private collections, of the same pagoda and one (in the collection of the French Photography Museum in Bièvres) showing the signatories of the treaty on board the warship L'Archimède. The one we are proposing is therefore the last one to be available on the market.
This surprising picture is one of the very first photographs of China. It retains the traces of a previous exposure (on the right side, with a vertical orientation) and gives an enchanting vision of the pagoda with a group of French Royal Navy officers inside, in white uniforms, and a large tree above