SAUNDERS, William Thomas (photographer).
[Portfolio of sketches of Chinese life and character].
[Shanghai, China, 1871]. Oblong album (ca. 41 x 56 cm). With 51 hand-coloured photographs mounted on the recto of 50 leaves. Contemporary gold- and black-tooled red sheepskin, with a hand-carved wooden panel mounted into the front board, showing a Asian house with 4 people around a round table, a cat or similar pet in the foreground next to a person smoking a pipe (an opium pipe?) being approached by a servant with two plates food, gold-tooled turn-ins, gilt edges, white watered silk endpapers. [50] ll.
€ 125,000
A spectacular album containing 51 hand-coloured photographs of tradesmen, local people, their costumes (costume studies), and landscapes of Shanghai. The photographs are mounted in a splendid album with a hand-carved wooden panel mounted in the front board.
Saunders' poignant portraits of hardworking tradesmen and itinerant workers capture the vibrant street life associated with Chinese urban culture. Saunders' studio portraits of local professionals and elegant women also depicted aspects of Chinese life that were new to many Westerners. Saunders' most famous image is a staged scene of a beheading, with calligraphic banners in the background (no. 32 in the present album). Despite the photographer's apparent talent, his observations, extensively documented in the captions beneath each photograph, unintentionally reveal his colonialist biases. It is striking that, while the images were thoughtfully composed and compelling, with careful consideration of his subjects, today's viewer would be taken aback by his candid remarks.
William Thomas Saunders (1832-1892) was a British-born photographer who settled in China and became the leading photographer in Shanghai during the late Qing dynasty. He was the first photographer known to produce hand-coloured photographs in China. Saunders first travelled to China in 1860 as an engineer. Upon his return in Britain, he studied photography before returning to China in 1862. That year, he opened a commercial photography studio in Shanghai with the photographic equipment he brought from Britain. His studio grew to be the most successful photography studio in Shanghai in the late 19th century. He was active in his studio from 1862 to ca. 1887.
A complete list of contents is available upon request.
The binding shows slight signs of wear (some minor scratches in the leather), the wooden frame is somewhat damaged, as elements of the scene are missing and most notably a cut in the middle of the scene effectively decapitating one of the people around the table, internally some light foxing throughout. Otherwise in very good condition. A remarkable collection of hand-coloured photographs of scenes in Shanghai in a deluxe album with a hand-carved wooden scene in the front board. For the photographer: Bennet, History of Photography in China (volume 2) Western Photographers, pp. 83-106.
Related Subjects:
