(CHINA) Howell Augustus Correspondence of a Hong Kong opium

Sale 2455 - Lot 69

Price Realized: $ 2,500

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 1,000 - $ 1,500

(CHINA.) Howell, Augustus. Correspondence of a Hong Kong opium merchant from New York. 8 Autograph Letters Signed, most to brother Silas S. Howell of New York. 4to, one letter with separations at folds and another incomplete, but otherwise only minimal wear. Canton and Hong Kong, January 1842 to September 1843

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Augustus Howell (1818-1856) of Sag Harbor, NY, went to Hong Kong in 1842 as mercantile manager with the Scottish firm Jardine, Matheson & Co. near the conclusion of the Opium War. His letters are full of detail on British military actions and mercantile conditions. His 2 July 1843 letter (which is lacking its final leaf) discusses the signing of the Treaty of Nanking which ceded Hong Kong to England, and laments the British "agitation viz the suppresion of the opium trade" which would damage "prevent many of the leading English houses from leaving Macao, particularly J, M & Co who are the largest house & have the most to do with the trade." An undated letter offers very detailed advice on investing in opium: "This Turkey opium is packed in tin boxes and requires to be made up to 140 lbs to make up for what it loses on the voyage in drying up. It is called by the Chinese cum fa hoong, the scarlet golden flower. There has not been much of this opium imported for several years past because the American houses here have not been able to compete." He adds that the political situation "will have some tendency to throw a portion of the coast trade into the hands of Americans, who are ever ready to snap at such things." A rich resource on Hong Kong's first year as a British colony. with--a good group of related Howell-Huntting family papers. 20 items, 1799-1894.