Oscar Birkett Payne Views of China, circa 1924-circa 1929

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Summary

Creators:
Payne, Oscar Birkett
Abstract:
The collection of glass and nitrate negatives contains almost 1,000 views of Shanghai and surrounding areas taken by Oscar Birkett Payne, especially documenting sites and scenes along the waterways going as far north as Ningbo (Ningpo) and Hangzhou (Hangchow). The geographical area represented comprises the provinces of Jiangsu (Kiangsu) and Zhejiang (Chekiang), and includes the towns or districts of Anting (Anking), Nanxiang (Nanshiang), Suzhou (Soochow), Songjiang (Sungkiang), Haining, Hangzhou, Jiaxing (Kashing), and Ningbo, as well as the city of Shanghai.
Extent:
14 Linear Feet (24 boxes)
Language:
Collection material is in English

Background

Scope and content:

The collection of glass and nitrate negatives contains almost 1,000 views of Shanghai and surrounding areas taken by Oscar Birkett Payne, especially documenting sites and scenes along the waterways going as far north as Ningbo (Ningpo) and Hangzhou (Hangchow). The geographical area represented comprises the provinces of Jiangsu (Kiangsu) and Zhejiang (Chekiang), and includes the towns or districts of Anting (Anking), Nanxiang (Nanshiang), Suzhou (Soochow), Songjiang (Sungkiang), Haining, Hangzhou, Jiaxing (Kashing), and Ningbo, as well as the city of Shanghai. Views of Shanghai include the old Chinese city as well as the European commercial center along the river known as the Shanghai Bund. Hebei (Hopei) province is respresented in a map of Nakow pass and a view of the Great Wall.

Included are views of the countryside, canals and rivers, bridges, junks, city walls, houses, local agricultural practices, pagodas, temples, Buddhist sculptures, markets, and cloud studies. The views of temples, pagodas, and their contents are especially valuable to researchers, as they capture the religious sites at a particular moment in time before many were destroyed by war or fire during the upheavals of the Chinese revolution in the late 1920s.

There are numerous portraits of Buddhist priests, many holding religious implements such as ruyi scholar wands and prayer beads. Many of the priests are from the Tiger Hill Pagoda. Candid and posed portraits of local inhabitants include studies of men, women, children, and family groups from various walks of life and of various ages. They are shown engaged in a wide variety of daily activities such as ploughing, weaving, smoking and drinking tea, selling their wares, and making shoes. Several images include Western men or women; Oscar Birkett Payne can be identified in a few images.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged in two series: Series I. Nitrate negatives, circa 1924-circa 1929; Series II. Glass negatives, circa 1924-circa 1929.

Biographical / historical:

Oscar Birkett Payne was an English designer, decorator and furniture designer. He was born in Carnforth, Lancashire on 1 November 1886. His father was a Master Decorator who played a significant role in the decoration of Leighton Hall, Carnforth, which still stands today, and is open to the public for viewing of its beautiful interiors and furniture, much of which was made by Waring & Gillow of Lancaster.

Payne was educated at Warwick School, Britain's oldest private boy's school. As a young man he worked for Waring & Gillow, of Manchester, but his love of the Far East led him to travel and work in Burma, and for the firms Hall & Holtz and Arts & Crafts in Shanghai. After World War II he was solicited by the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong to oversee the extensive renovation of the hotel, which he did from approximately 1947 to 1955. Payne's hobby was photography, which he combined with his extensive travels.

Payne died on 23 June 1957.

Sources cited:

Archivist correspondence with Angeline Thompson, 2 May 2019.

Oscar Birkett Payne was an interior decorator employed by the Shanghai furnishing firm of Hall, Hotz & Co.

Acquisition information:
Gift of Joan and Clark Worswick.
Physical location:
Request access to the physical materials described in this inventory through the catalog record for this collection. Click here for the access policy.
Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Location of this collection:
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles, CA 90049-1688, US
Contact:
(310) 440-7390
Website