Antique Singapore Print, View of Singapore Town & Harbour taken from the Government Hill by Raffles

Singapore City View by Raf es

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INDIES GALLERY

Extremely rare antique aquatint etching titled, “View of Singapore Town & Harbour taken from the Government Hill” Probably the most important and most sought after antique print of Singapore ever made, with only 1500 printed in 1830. Engraved after William Daniell and drawn during his two visits to the Far East.

This very unique print was published in the Memoir of the Life and Public Services of Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, F.R.S. &c. John Murray, London, 1830.

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View of Singapore Town & Harbour taken from the Government Hill

Publication London, 1830 Dimensions 760 by 270 mm.

1000 by 50 cm. (framed) Price 5200 USD.

Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles, (1781 – 1826) was a British statesman, LieutenantGovernor of British Java (1811–1815) and Governor-General of Bencoolen (1817–1822), best known for his founding of Modern Singapore. He was heavily involved in the conquest of the Indonesian island of Java from Dutch and French military forces during the Napoleonic Wars and contributed to the expansion of the British Empire. He was also an amateur writer and wrote a book titled The History of Java (1817).

Raffles arrived in Bencoolen, Sumatra, on 19 March 1818, where he was appointed as the Lieutenant-Governor of Bencoolen on 22 March 1818.

Despite the prestige connected with the title of Lieutenant-Governor, Bencoolen was a colonial backwater whose only real export was pepper and only the murder of a previous Resident, Thomas Parr, gained it any attention back home in Britain. Raffles found the place wrecked, and set about reforms immediately, mostly similar to what he had done in Java – abolishing slavery and limiting cockfighting and such games.

It was at this point that he realized the importance of a British presence that could both challenge the Dutch hegemony in the area and remain consistently profitable, unlike Bencoolen or Batavia. Raffles looked into alternatives in the area – namely Bangka, which had been ceded to the Dutch after its conquest by the British during its occupation of Java.

Major William Farquhar, the British Resident of Malacca, had been attempting to negotiate commercial treaties with the local chiefs of the Riau Archipelago, especially before Raffles's arrival. He noted it as a success and reported it as

such to Raffles.

Raffles then sailed to Malacca in late 1818 to personally secure a British presence in the Riau area, especially Singapura, which was favoured by him based on his readings of Malayan histories and Farquhar's reports. At this point in Malaysian history, the name Lion City was applied. The city was in a strategically advantageous position; however, he was ordered not to provoke the Dutch. After a brief survey of the Karimun Islands, on 29 January 1819, he established a post at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula and could establish that there was no Dutch presence on the island of Singapore. Members of Raffles' party surveyed the island and signed a formal treaty with a man who claimed to be the "lawful sovereign of the whole of territories extending from Lingga and Johor to Mount Muar."

Raffles declared the foundation of what was to become modern Singapore on 6 February, securing the transfer of control of the island to the East India Company. With much pomp and ceremony, the official treaty was read aloud in languages representing all nations present, as well as the Malay and Chinese inhabitants. Farquhar was officially named the Resident of Singapore and Raffles was named as "Agent to the Most Noble the Governor-General with the States of Rhio (Riau), Lingin and Johor".

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