The civil war in China (1850–64), also called the Taiping Rebellion, erupted northward from Guangxi to the Yangtze. During the height of the uprising, French and British forces chose to aid the Qing government to fight with the Taipings. This image shows the capture of Ningpo (Ningbo) by British and French naval forces on 10 May 1862.

The drawing is signed ‘SES’ in the lower-left. A print after the drawing was published in the Illustrated London News on 2 August 1862 (p. 120). According to the accompanying account (p. 138), “Through the courtesy of Mr McArthur, Paymaster in the Royal Navy, and of Mr. Saunders, photographer, of Shanghai, we are enabled to give in our present Impression several Engravings in connection with this gallant feat of arms.” This drawing is after a photograph by Saunders, a copy of which is held in the Surrey History Centre, Woking.

This drawing is part of a set of seven drawings showing scenes from the Taiping Rebellion, all of which were engraved in the Illustrated London News. The set was given to the museum in October 1964 in memory of Margaret Maxwell Wood, step-daughter of Captain Alexander Douglas, who was reportedly present at the actions and owned the drawings. They were originally miscatalogued as depicting scenes from the Second Opium War. For the full set see, PAI0719, PAI0720, PAI0721, PAI0722, PAI0723, PAI0724 and PAI0725.