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WILLIAM SAUNDERS (1832-1892)
An album entitled
Sketches of Chinese Life and Character.
An extraordinary album with 50 hand-colored photographs depicting exotic scenes in Shanghai
and a host of occupational studies.Albumen prints, 9
1
/
4
x8
3
/
4
inches (23.5x22.2 cm.), and the reverse,
in an assortment of oval, arch-topped and rectilinear formats; each with a printed caption label with
the print number affixed to mount recto.With 2 additional mounted albumen photographs, the
first of a Chinese professional (a banker?) who is depicted with his large family, and the second a
group portrait in which this same official is shown with Asian and Western professionals, which is
inscribed “Yours tc, Clapp & Co.,” in ink, on mount verso. Oblong small folio,
1
/
4
morocco, worn;
contents tight. 1871-72
[25,000/35,000]
William Saunders was an English commercial photographer who operated a studio in Shanghai
between 1862 and 1887. His sensitive portraits of hardscrabble tradesmen and itinerant occupationals
capture the colorful street life associated with Chinese urban culture. Saunders’ studio portraits of
local professionals and elegant women also depicted aspects of Chinese life new to manyWesterners.
Saunders’ best-known image is a staged scene of a beheading, with calligraphic banners in the
background.This album also includes a study of a woman’s tiny bound foot.
Despite Saunders apparent talent, his observations, which are recorded at length in printed captions
mounted below each photograph, inadvertently detail his colonialist prejudices. It is curious that,
while the images were carefully constructed and compelling, with special consideration of his
subjects (e.g., the woman whose feet were photographed), today’s reader will be surprised by his
unguarded remarks.
The album apparently belonged to a businessman associated with Clapp and Company, a banking
firm that operated in China.
The photographs include:
The Head of a Chinese Guild * Shanghai Coolies * A Celestial Cab * Cotton
Rolling Machine * Cotton Spinning *Weaving * A ChineseWoman’s Foot * A Shanghai Woman * Rain!
* The Itinerant Cookshop * The Itinerant Cookshop (variant) * Ploughing * ShanghaiWoman and Child *
Opium Smokers * Beggars * A Chiropodist * A Mandarin Procession * Shangahi Winter Dress * Cobblers
* Irrigation * AWedding Procession * Sampan! *The Brush Seller * Itinerant Barbers * AYoung Lady From
Canton * A Shanghai Sampan * Native Ferry-Boats * “Music for the Million” * A Funeral Procession * A
Court Scene * The Cangue * Decapitation * Dominoes * A Small Military Mandarin * Itinerant Needle-
Women * Actors * A Ningpo Family * A Chow-Chow Party * A Civil Mandarin * Blind Musicians * A
Joss House * Priests * Shanghai Musicians * SoochowWomen * An Ingenious Device * Fortune-Telling *
The “Hand-Carriage” * A Despatch Boat * A CantonWoman * The Magistrate of The Mixed Court.
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(Lot 13)