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In the early seventeenth century, the de Bry brothers produced a set of books on the East Indies, containing many references to China and the Chinese. Both the text and engravings describe Chinese  customs and costumes, their regal processions and courts, and the activities of the Chinese merchants  encountered by the Europeans at Bantam in Java. The splendour of the life of the ruling classes captured the imagination of both artist and writer, who showed them dressed in silk robes and making a river journey in a boat roofed with silk and gold.

Citation:
9. J. Theodor de Bry and J. Israel de Bry, Tertia pars Indiæ Orientalis (Frankfurt, 1601),
Marsh's Library Exhibits,
accessed December 6, 2025,
https://www.marshlibrary.ie/digi/items/show/564