This beautifully produced art book displays the unique Sze Yuan Tang Collection of Historic Paintings assembled by shipping businessman Anthony Hardy over the past 40 years. It contains sections on reverse glass portraits as well as ship paintings, but the real heart of the book lies in the depiction of the port scenes of the Far Eastern trading cities painted in a Western style by local Chinese artists. Canton, Hong Kong, Xiamen, Nagasaki, Shanghai...they are all featured here in their 19th Century beginnings before they became the international powerhouses of global trade that they are today.