Hand Colored Engraving by T. Allom: View of the Porcelain Tower, Nanking

Somehow a tall tower stacks up many stories of curling roofs above a gathering of onlookers

This hand colored engraving is from London, England, United Kingdom, and is dated 1843. It is ink on paper. Thomas Allom, an architect and founding member of what became the Royal Institute of British Architects, illustrated books on China in the 1840s without ever making the trip there himself. Hand-tinted throughout, a view of a slim, many-tiered tower with white walls and green and orange eaves, set above red-roofed buildings, palms, and a crowd on the path. Soft blue hills sit behind. Captions print below. It is 10.5 inches wide and 7.8 high.

The tower has the posture and the rest simply gather round.