"...essential reading for scholars interested in the global interchange of art, objects, and architecture during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries . . . . Mancini’s book is a critical study that offers a welcome reassessment of the chronology of empire in the Pacific. Moreover, Mancini provides an account of the integral role that vision, visuality, and objects played in this important history. . . . [it] should be included in any classroom that dives into a discussion of Asia’s interrelationship with the West during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries"
