Lot 130: THOMAS CHILD, ACTIVE 1871-1889

CHINA. 'IN AND AROUND PEKING', THIRTY-ONE PHOTOGRAPHS FROM THE SERIES, LATE 1870S-EARLY 1880S

each approx. 250 by 190 (9 7/8 by 7½ in.) or the reverse

including 'Great Lama and Attendants' [illustrated], a study of the Great Wall of China, and views of the French Legation and the Summer Palace, Albumen Prints, each mounted on card, the majority signed and dated in the negative, stamped 'Thos. Child/Peking' on reverse of mount, and with printed series label also on the reverse, together with an article "Thomas Child, Photographer of Peking", by Colin Osman, written for a booklet to accompany an exhibition of Child's prints in the Historical Group Exhibition at the Royal Photographic Society, 1-3 September 1989,

Quantity: 31

PROVENANCE

The collection of Colin Osman.

LITERATURE

Carrington Goodrich, L. & Cameron, N. 1978, p. 102, 'Gate in Peking Wall, c 1880'.
See also Osman, C., "In Search of Thomas Child" in British Journal of Photography, 3rd, 10th, 17th, 24th August 1989.

NOTE

Thomas Child arrived in Peking in the early 1870s and soon began photographing the topography of the city and the everyday life of its inhabitants. Although others, including Felice Beato and John Thomson, had photographed in China prior to Child's arrival, Peking and North China were, at this time, still almost unknown country. Within a few years Child began to compile a portfolio which eventually numbered over 200 images and was to make up the series 'In and Around Peking'. The majority of images were taken between 1875 and 1877, although there were later revisions, and together they constituted the most extensive coverage of any city in the Far East at that time.