A gently swelling cylinder form provides the basis for an expansive tropical beach scene in which the engraver seems to have crammed as many Japanese motifs as possible. The rising sun illumines waves, bamboo, cranes, swallows, prunus and cattails. As if that wasn't enough, a circular inset adds another bird and conical mountains. Below the shore gives way to a patchwork of juxtaposed Japanese patterns. Somehow, however, the composition manages to carry its own sense of order and even serenity. The brown transfer printing and ivory ground are highlighted with ochre shades and pastels.

The formula of landscape resting on fields of Japanese motifs places "Tonquin" with a group of aesthetic patterns we like to call "patchwork landscapes." (They seem to relate, by the way, to the crazy quilts of the period.) The patterns seem to follow the lead of Gildea & Walker's "Melbourne"; the number if imitators attests to the commercial success of the idea.