Description
The album, compiled by G. Prat, a French silk inspector working in China in the latter part of the
nineteenth century, contains 151 albumen photographs of China and Japan. The album's visual focus is on the ports and trading
centers of China's Pearl
River Delta. Present are 98 views of Guangzhou (Canton); six of Hong Kong; and 11 of Macau. Additionally, there are 16 images
on eight pages depicting
the Canton Amateur Theatrical Society's (CATS) productions, and 20 photographs of Japan, 19 of which are hand colored. Photographers
include Lai Fong
and Kusakabe Kinbē. Extensive commentary written on the mount borders forms Prat's compendium on China in which he addresses
any number of topics from
history, geography, climate, agriculture, religion, language and dialects, and business practices to family life, sedan chairs,
etiquette, costume and
dress, and
opium, to a lexicon of colonial Asian terms. The album is accompanied by 21 loose albumen prints and a manuscript listing photographs
to be
acquired.
Background
The Frenchman, G. Prat, lived in Asia during the last quarter of the nineteenth century, working or traveling in the region
from at least 1874 to 1896.
From 1877 to 1884, he was based in Guangzhou where he was employed as a silk inspector by the American trading company Russell
& Co. for a year and
a half, and by the English firm Thomas, Rowe, & Smith for five and a half years. He was active in the European community on
Shamian Island and
numbered among his friends the "junior men" who were variously employed as accountants, tea tasters, silk inspectors, and
the like at the European
trading houses established in the port city.
Extent
1.5 Linear Feet
(1 album containing 151 photographs; 21 loose photographic prints)
Restrictions
Contact Library Reproductions and
Permissions.
Availability
Open for use by qualified researchers.