Four heads [23-26], types of the labouring classes. Photographer: Thomson, John
Scope & Content:
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) Half-length of a young man of the labouring classes, 'stripped to the waist, as is his wont during the hours of toil...'
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) Full-length standing studio portrait of a Chinese maid, holding a large fan: 'This maid is a slave girl, bought in childhood for a trifling sum from her poor parents ... This girl has been reared in the bosom of the family, and trained to wait on the ...
Tea picking in Canton. Photographer: Thomson, John
Scope & Content:
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) Portrait of four women, seated at a table in the open, sorting tea: 'Black teas, after being partially dried in the sun, and slightly fired, are rolled either by the palm of the hand on a flat tray, or by the foot in a hempen bag. They are scorched in...
Rolling scented caper and gunpowder teas. Photographer: Thomson, John
Scope & Content:
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) Portrait of two men, supported by their arms from a beam, rolling bags of tea into large balls with their feet.
Weighing tea for exportation. Photographer: Thomson, John
Scope & Content:
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) View showing tea being weighed on scales supported by sheerlegs, with a European figure seated in the foreground.
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) 'A number of men may be seen during the tea season in front of the house, employed, as shown in the photograph, in picking, sampling, and sorting the tea, or in preparing the chests for its reception...'
Genre: Portrait Photography Half-length portrait of a Chinese compradore, 'or treasurer in a foreign mercantile house—a man who, by his legitimate savings and private trading speculations, has accumulated a large fortune.'
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) Oval image. Head-and-shoulders full face portrait of a young Chinese man, 'whose natural shrewdness and capacity for business have helped him on to a successful mercantile career.'
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) Oval image. Head-and-shoulders left half-profile portrait of an elderly Chinese man, 'a labourer, and, although over eighty, still earns a living as a porter'.