The Bund, the embanked quayside running along a stretch of the Huangpu river, was established in 1842 as the site of the first mercantile buildings of the new international settlement in Shanghai. The red-roofed Chinese custom house at the centre of the composition was built in 1847. In September 1853 it was sacked by members of the Small Sword Society and was rebuilt with wings (not shown here) before reopening in the late 1850s. Just to the right is the tower of the Episcopal Church, later rebuilt as Trinity Cathedral.

For another closely related painting, 1850s, see Martyn Gregory, Revealing the East: Catalogue 91, London, 2013-2014, p.63, no.63, which was later sold at Christie's London, 5 November 2020, lot 105.