Relationship between Hart Sketches and De La Rue Design Sketches

Campbell sent the two small sketches received from Peking to De La Rue on May 22, 1877, with a postscript “Will you kindly return the two small sketches, when you have done with them.” In his May 23 letter he pointed out: “In each of the two small sketches I sent you yesterday, there is a globe, floating in space, which is intended for the Yin & Yang.” Thus, we may conclude there were two small size sketches sent from Peking, and each sketch bore a symbol of Yin & Yang at the center. As Campbell specifically requested their return, De La Rue was unable to retain the sketches in its Archives. What exactly was shown in these sketches? The notion of two sketches, however, reminds us of the sketches of “Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl” and “Dragon and Phoenix Playing with a Pearl” from Hart's personal collection, which will be referred to as the “Hart Sketches”. Without corroboration from actual documents, there had been divergent opinions on the actual use of the Hart Sketches for a long while. A few scholars had noted the Hart Sketches were designed without value and issuing country. The designs were also too detailed, the colors too numerous and the overall size too great to form the basic blueprints for postage stamp printing. The same group also suggested the Hart Sketches were drawn by a Western artist as the central designs for Chinese banknotes to be printed in Europe. However, there was no under-lying documentary evidence for this argument, and it was treated merely as a speculation. Based on our discoveries in the De La Rue's China Archives, with Campbell's May 22 letter as a clue, the two sketches he mentioned should very well be the sketches of “Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl” and “Dragon and Phoenix Playing with a Pearl” from Hart's personal collection. This proposition is based on the following three important reasons:

1．The Broad Ar row: Yin & Yang Device

The employment of the symbol of Yin & Yang Device in postage stamp designs, as well as in paper watermarks, was related to the consistent position of Hart. As early as April 4, 1874, Hart wrote to Campbell “Adopt the Yin & Yang device, as our ‘broad arrow.' It is as you draw it with a black and a white eye added.” Additionally, there was a copy of the London Office Inspectorate General of Chinese Maritime Customs: DIRECTIONS FOR MARKING CASES,& c. in the De La Rue's China Archives. This document included two illustrations, both of which bore the “Broad Arrow”, as requested by Hart. Furthermore, the “Broad Arrow” was the symbol of “Yin & Yang Device” described thus: “The Mark is constructed describing by two equal semi-circles with a circle round them, thus: the right side of the figure is dark, having the centre or eye of the upper semi-circle bright, whilst the left side is bright and the eye dark.” In fact, the Yin & Yang Device, as a special sign representing the Chinese Imperial Maritime Customs, had been widely used in various customs affairs at the London Office of the Inspectorate General of Chinese Customs.

In its June 8 report, De La Rue also submitted “a design for what we should consider would be an appropriate watermark to employ in the paper for Chinese stamps. This consists of the symbol of Yin & Yang, deprived, however, of the nuclei, as those we could not render satisfactorily in the paper.”

However, this highly praised symbol of Yin & Yang Device by Hart was not assimilated into the subsequent production of the Large Dragons in Shanghai. The stamp design, presided over by Detring, was not the only element without the complement of Yin& Yang Device. The paper was made without the symbol as well. In short, Detring expunged Hart's “flavor” from China's first set of stamps. Nevertheless, the employment of Yin & Yang watermarked paper in the production of the later Dowager and Small Dragon Issues seemed a remedy for this exclusion.

2．The Intrinsic Relationship between the Hart Sketches and De La Rue Design Sketches

The Hart Sketches came from Hart's personal collection. One sketch was “Two Dragons Playing with a Pearl”, and the other “Dragon and Phoenix Playing with a Pearl.” The basic composition of the sketches adopted the symbol of Yin & Yang at their center and one dragon, or one dragon and one phoenix, positioned at each side. The thematic subjects for the central designs of both the Hart Sketches and De La Rue Sketches, which were later submitted to the Chinese Customs as De La Rue's proposed postage stamps and postage envelope emblems, were fundamentally similar. Accordingly, there is a distinct correlation between the Hart Sketches and De La Rue Design Sketches. In other words, the Hart Sketches should be the two sketches from Peking mentioned in Campbell's May 22 and 23 letters to De La Rue.

3．The Positions of Yin & Yang

After examining closely the Hart Sketches and De La Rue Design Sketches, we found the positions of Yin & Yang, in their respective Yin & Yang Devices, were not exactly the same. In the Hart Sketches, the Yins, or dark sides, were on the left and facing downward. Conversely, the Yins in the De La Rue design sketches were on the right and facing upward. If the composition of De La Rue Design Sketches originated from the Hart Sketches, why did the positions of Yin & Yang in the Device change completely? The answer to this question is easily discerned after seeing the De La Rue China Archives. In Campbell's May 22 letter to De La Rue, he particularly emphasized “In the Yin & Yang device, the dark side should be uppermost.” To be more explicit and accurate, Campbell drew a sketch in his letter to describe the proper positions of Yin & Yang. This explanation of the modification fur-nished to De La Rue in the explicit design requirement provides us with the key to connect the Hart Sketches and the two sketches from Peking together.

In R. A. de Villard's 1896 Proposed Stamps, & Postcards, etc. for the Imperial Chinese Post, Memos submitted to the Inspector General of I. M. Customs, quite a few symbols of the Yin & Yang were presented. The positions of Yin & Yang were consistent with Campbell's require-ment. This might thus be recognized as the standard logo for the Chinese Imperial Customs. Therefore, the presentations of these Yin& Yang Devices in the literature as to whether they were described in their upright, inverted, reversed or reversely inverted positions should be revised.