The Sampans from Canton is a collection of ninety-nine Chinese gouaches from the second half of the eighteenth century that depict in minute detail an entire community afloat on the water, with the various sampan vessels used for everything from the sale of fruit and religious ceremonies to warfare and thievery. For more than 200 years, the gouaches hung in Skärfva Manor House, the home of Vice Admiral Fredric Henric af Chapman, on the outskirts of Karlskrona, Sweden. In 2014, the collection was broken up for auction. Today they can be found at the UNESCO World Heritage Site Engelsberg Ironworks; they are a unique chronicle of the dream of China and contacts between east and west.

This book, the first detailed account of the collection, examines the gouaches from both an art historical and a cultural perspective. They serve as an important entry into the eighteenth-century world of ideas and as a way of understanding Fredric Henric af Chapman’s great importance as a collector and visionary. A separate booklet of essays highlights the images in their art-historical context.