2-979-114 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Form of a Treaty of Marriage in China - from a drawing by a Chinese artist, 1857. 'Upon the table is a tablet bearing the names of the contracting parties, with doves as emblematic supporters...Early marriages are encouraged in China; among the Mandarins and wealthy classes the matrimonial age varies from sixteen to twenty years in males; from twelve to fourteen in females...One of their customs before marriage, although synonymous with our fashion of sending a lady's portrait, is most extraordinary. As the damsel cannot be seen, her shoe is sent to the gentleman, that he may be enabled to judge of the dimensions of her crippled feet - the smallness of the foot being a Chinaman's beau-ideal of perfection'. From "Illustrated London News", 1857.