John Bradby Blake

Life John Bradby Blake was born in Westminster, London. John Bradby Blake was educated at Westminster School. His academic studies at that time would have consisted primarily of Latin, Greek, and biblical study. He likely learned botany from his father and may have also been influenced by the numerous plant nurseries that were located in the part of London where Bradby Blake grew up; wherever Bradby Blake learned botany, it was probably not at Westminster School. On 29 August 1764, Bradby Blake applied for the position of either writer or junior supercargo with the British East India Company, following in his father's footsteps. Though the Company did not accept his first application, Bradby Blake applied again on 27 August 1766. This time he was successful, and later that year Bradby Blake travelled to Canton (present-day Guangzhou) in China as a supercargo of the East India Company. Following a brief return to London in 1768, Bradby Blake sailed again for China, this time as a resident supercargo. Staying in Macao in between trading seasons, Bradby Blake would spend the remainder of his short life in Asia.

He devoted his spare time in Canton to natural science, particularly botany, as well as some attempts to record and study Chinese language and culture. His plan was to procure the seeds of commercially useful plants found in China and to send to Europe and the Americas these seeds and the plants producing them. His idea was that they might be propagated in Great Britain and Ireland as well as in the British colonies. As discussed further below, Blake's scheme was in many ways successful. Cochinchina rice was grown in Jamaica and South Carolina; the tallow-tree prospered in Jamaica, Carolina, and in other American colonies; and many of the plants he sent to Britain were also raised in several botanical gardens near London. He also sent to England some specimens of fossils and ores. Mauk-Sow-U was likely hired from one of the factories that made Canton export art, a style of painting that provided European sailors with paintings of Asia to take home as souvenirs. The style of the work in the John Bradby Blake archive, however, is markedly different from the style of export art, indicating the botanical focus towards which Bradby Blake steered the project and the skill of Mauk-Sow-U and any other collaborators.

Although many plants were sent to the colonies in the New World, specimens were distributed to the flourishing nurseries and gardens around London and in other cities as well as the Royal Gardens at Kew and the Chelsea Physic Garden (two well-known centers for botanical knowledge). John Bradby Blake in fact grew up in Westminster, a neighborhood in London well-known for its many nurseries, and these nurseries may have been an early influence that led to his interest in botany. The fact that shipments went to smaller, commercial nurseries as well as the more prestigious botanic gardens signifies the importance of these less well-documented nurseries and also the many avenues of communication and trade within the botanic community.

Bradby Blake spent considerable time and energy experimenting with various ways to send seeds and plants overseas. For example, with the tallow tree, Bradby Blake tested growing seeds in various types of soil and with varying amounts of water. He also tested and recorded various treatments to preserve seeds; these included storage in a tortoiseshell box, storage in wax, and drying the seeds before later packaging and shipping them. For live plants, Bradby Blake ultimately utilized a method of transport similar to one designed by John Ellis, in which plants are kept in wired cases that held them stable while also allowing for efficient movement of the specimens.

Today, the existing archive of John Bradby Blake's work consists predominately of this unfinished Chinese flora, created as watercolor and gouache paintings. While there are some depicting fish and one of a turtle, the vast majority of the illustrations are of plants. Bradby Blake and Mauk-Sow-U emphasized various botanical details in the illustrations, including the detailed anatomy of flowers, various stages of development, and even the relationship between figs and fig wasps. While not as elegant as the paintings of the contemporary Georg Dionysius Ehret, of whose work with Linnaeus on taxonomy Bradby Blake was likely aware, the Bradby Blake-commissioned paintings are just as scientifically detailed.

The dictionary A third part of Bradby Blake's legacy involves a Chinese/English dictionary, a written and illustrated document that translates various aspects of Chinese culture into English. The dictionary was likely a means for Bradby Blake to learn and study Chinese language and culture and was created with the help of several Chinese writers and illustrators. The dictionary entries are always organized in the same way: first, there is always an accompanying illustration of the item, thing or concept; second, there are neatly drawn Cantonese characters to accompany the illustration; third, there are Cantonese pronunciations written out using English letters; finally, these materials are accompanied by definitions, translations, or explanations in English. The writer of the English text (likely Bradby Blake) often demystifies various components of Chinese culture. For example, on the entry for "Dragon," he adds the qualifier "imaginary." Similarly, for later entries of players depicting various figures in Chinese mythology and folklore, the English translation does not translate the mythological significance of these figures, instead describing them as people in costumes. For other entries, the English translator adds contextual information to the Chinese entry (for example, for the entry on "pillory," the English writer adds that people were often punished "for 1, 2, or 3 months" and with "various weights"). The dictionary provides a unique glimpse into cross-cultural interactions at the time, in some ways even more than the botanical illustrations. The different hands working on the dictionary, and the value judgements made by the English writer, reveal multiple voices exchanging and evaluating cultural information.