View, probably an artist's study for "Birch's Country Seats," depicting the Bucks County estate China Retreat, near the Delaware River , built in 1796 by former Resident Director of the East India Company in China, André Everadus Van Braam-Houckgeest. Sold by Van Braam in 1798, the estate passed through several owners, including Gabriel Manigault in 1807, and at various times housed Bristol College, a boarding house, and an orphan asylum for African American children. The mansion, the estate grounds severly diminished, was demolished in the mid 20th century. View includes cows drinking on the banks of the river and two men paddling a boat., Title from manuscript note on verso., Accompanied by scrap inscribed with manuscript note: Van Braam's Delaware River nearly opposite to Burlington. Afterward Penna Cottage., See William Snyder's "William Birch: His Country Seats of the United States" The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 81 (July 1957), p. 225-254., Originally part of a Poulson scrapbook.
Creator
Birch, William Russell, 1755-1834, artist
Date
[ca. 1808]
Location
Library Company of Philadelphia | Print Department drawings & watercolors - Birch - Van Braam's China Retreat [P.8759.2]
