14 loose gelatin silver photos (including three period copy images): two two-part panoramas ca. 14x40 cm (5 ½ x 15 ¾ in), one large image ca. 20,5x27 cm (8 x 10 ½ in); the rest of the photos are from ca. 15x20 cm (5 ¾ x 7 ¾ in) to ca. 8,5x8,5 cm (3 ¼ x 3 ¼ in). Six photos with period pencil or ink captions on verso. With 87 loose phototypes, including 37 larger images from ca. 19,5x23,5 cm (7 ¾ x 9 ¼ in) to ca. 14,5x16 cm (5 ¾ x 6 ¼ in); the rest of the images are from ca. 12x14 cm (4 ¾ x 5 ½ in) to ca. 5,5x7,5 cm (2 ¼ x 3 in). Over 40 images with period manuscript ink or pencil captions or notes on recto or verso. Three gelatin silver photos with creases and minor tears on the margins, several photos with old mount residue on verso, a few photos mildly faded, but overall a good collection. Ca. 50 phototypes with scratches, creases or losses on the margins, or wormholes on the image. Overall a good extensive collection of interesting views.

Interesting extensive collection of gelatin silver photos and phototypes of Imperial China in the late 19th – early 20th century. The gelatin silver photos include two large panoramic views of a Chinese village on a hill with vegetable gardens in the foreground; five images of public executions of Chinese “pirates,” “bandits,” and “looters” (including three large early 20th-century copied photos); vivid scenes of a Chinese barbershop (combing hair, cutting toenails, pulling teeth); portraits of a Chinese noble lady wearing a fengguan headdress, a nobleman in traditional costume, a street food seller, peasants on a rice field; views of the interior of Buddhist temples, &c.

The phototypes include views of Beijing (Seventeen-Arch Bridge, Observatory, a camel statue from the Sacred Way to the Ming Tombs); Hong Kong (Victoria City, harbour, “Kwan-yin temple,” clock tower); Guangzhou (British consulate), Shanghai (port, European consulate), Tianjin (“ruins of the Sisters’ chapel”), Nanjing (“the old arch,” “scene in Nanking Arsenal”); Wuhan (general view of Hankou, Wuchang pagoda); Yichang Gorge, foreign settlement in Kin Kiang, Yangtze River rapids, HMS “Duke of Edinburgh” in a Chinese port, Chinese villages, city gates, pagodas, &c. There are also numerous portraits of Chinese people: Prince Gong (1833-1898); Chinese statesman Li Hongchang (1823-1901), “Jui-Lin, Governor General” (of the two Kwang provinces), “Chinese coal miners,” peasants, beggars, boatsmen, musicians, people from “labouring clanes,” people making and drying fuel on a river bank, carriers of “a mule litter,” Buddhist priests, children, a painter, a woman working at a cotton-spinning machine, a female weaver with child, a family “on the verandah,” “Tientsin men,” women and girls with traditional hairdos or headdress, people looking inside a street entertainer’s portable magic lantern, a “mendicant priest,” a “Manchu soldier,” a firewood carrier in Sichuan, &c. Overall an interesting collection of original images of Imperial China and its people at the turn of the 20th century.