A beautifully illustrated catalogue of an important loan exhibition, focusing on the China Trade, held by Sotheby's in their main galleries between January and February 1997. Illustrating the trading links that have been forged over the centuries between Great Britain and the Far East, particularly in the field of decorative arts, A Tale of Three Cities highlights how trade was originally carried out through a number of Chinese ports until 1700, thereafter almost exclusively through Canton until 1850, then increasingly Shanghai until 1942 and, since the war, Hong Kong. The book brings to life the development of this trade through different types of decorative art.

Slight tear to dust jacket on rear of spine.