Sing Kwa - William Saunders - Dutton & Michaels - H. C. - Lot 46

Sing Kwa - William Saunders - Dutton & Michaels - H. C. Cammidge and others Gabriel Lajeat's personal album, c. 1880. Journey to China and Japan. Egypt. Alexandria. Port-Saïd. Cairo. Plain of Giza. Suez Canal. Yemen. Aden. Ceylon. China. Hong Kong. Pedder's Wharf. English Concession. Destruction caused by the typhoon of 1879. Canton. Red Pagoda. Shanghai. French Concession. Bund. War Pagoda. Customs House. Sikawei. Jesuit monastery. Suzhou. Yamen gate. Beijing. Imperial Palace. Ming tomb. Guangzhou. Pagoda of the 500 Genies. Kiukiang. Anqing. Yingfeng Temple. Hangzhou. Oblong folio album in full morocco, titled on the first cover, composed of 68 albumen prints, mounted on cardboard. Legends to the proofs written in pencil by Gabriel Lajeat on two leaves, preserved at the beginning of the album. Some rare legends and studio credits in the negatives. Sizes: from 18 x 23 to 23 x 29 cm Some of the images in this album are included in another - sold in 2023 by Dominic Winter - bearing the Sing Kwa studio label. Although little documented, the photographer's activity is attested by an issue of Scribner's Monthly (Volume 16, Number 1), 1878, p. 158: "An American photographer in Shanghai employed for some time as assistant a Cantonese named Sing Kwa, who concluded that he was master of the tricks of the trade, and accordingly started business on his own account". The Bancroft Library in Berkeley also holds an album bearing the same studio label. Several other prints are attributed to William Saunders by the J.P. Getty Museum in Los Angeles.