SUDBURY, MA – A Chinese export oil showing a Qing emperor at court leads a single-owner dispersal at Tremont Auctions on Sunday, May 5. The 338-lot sale comprises an eclectic Massachusetts collection of American, European, and Asian arts and antiques. The catalog is now open at LiveAuctioneers.

Commanding the highest estimate, at $15,000-$18,000, is an early 19th-century oil on canvas laid on board depicting an imperial audience given by the emperor Jaiqing (1796-1820). It is thought to depict the pavilions in the Old Summer Palace, the main imperial residence of the Qing emperors and the center of state affairs. It was largely destroyed by French and British troops in the final act of the Second Opium War in October 1860.

Although relatively rare, the scene is well known. A body color on linen version is housed in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton, and was brought back to England circa 1800 by Richard Hill, who served as a supercargo for the British East India Company. It is pictured in the influential book Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century by Margaret Jourdain and Soame Jenyns, which attributes the work to the studio of Lam Qua (1801-1860), the Chinese painter from Canton who specialized in Western-style portraits intended largely for export.

Estimated at $14,000-$18,000 is a textbook White Mountain scene by Benjamin Champney (1817-1907). Signed and dated 1856, this 2ft 2in by 3ft canvas in its original frame depicts Mount Chocorua, the easternmost peak of the Sandwich Range. It is likely the painting exhibited in 1856 at the Boston Athenaeum titled N.H. Lake Scenery, Mt. Chocorua in the Distance. Champney had bought a house more than 50 years.