The Chief Superintendent's Seal (1841)

From 26th January 1841 until 26th June 1843 the Colony was administered by a Chief Superintendent of Trade, the first of whom was Captain Charles Elliot, R.N. No impression of this seal has survived in Hong Kong, but the Colonial Office succeeded in discovering a copy, reproduced in Plate I, which Sir Henry Pottinger, G.C.B., the then Chief Superintendent, sent to the Secretary of State for record under cover of a despatch dated 22nd November December [1] 1843. There is a brief note in Eitel's "Europe in China" that this seal was stolen by robbers from Sir Henry's house on the 19th May 1843, but he evidently succeeded in recovering it by November of the same year.