The Harbour Picture

The Victorian Seal in Plate II merits close attention for it contains the first version of the controversial "harbour picture" which was periodically maligned during the next hundred years. All the different representations of this picture, although varying in detail, include the same features: hills in the background (representing the Peak district), a naval vessel and a junk in a harbour, and three persons in the foreground engaged in negotiating the purchase of some bales of merchandise. None of the versions of the picture has been very popular. "A picture of such elaborate ugliness'', said Mr. (later Sir Cecil) Clementi, the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, in December 1911, "is difficult to reproduce, and copies of it made for various purposes rarely resemble each other". Sir Mark Young, who was Governor in 1947, was less scathing: "I do not find its quaintness particularly repulsive", he remarked mildly when invited to abolish the picture in favour of a more modern design.

This seal remained unchanged in design throughout the reign of Queen Victoria, but at some period a new copy must have been obtained, for the seal used on documents in 1897 contained minor variations in detail from the original 1842 seal.