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.'
A whiff of opium at home. Photographer: Thomson, John
Scope & Content:
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) 'This picture shows the method in which opium is smoked by the wealthier classes among the Chinese. The smoker here has leisure and money at his command, so that he is able to indulge freely in his use of the drug...'
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...'
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.
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 ...
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.
A Canton boatwoman and child. Photographer: Thomson, John
Scope & Content:
Genre: Portrait Photography (generic types) Half-length porfile portrait of a Chinese woman, a baby carried across her back on a sling: 'The old woman in the photograph is the grandmother living with her son's family in the boat: she still works cheerfully at the oar to help the domestic earnin...