Apr 18, 2013 - Sale 2311

Sale 2311 - Lot 9

Price Realized: $ 6,720
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
(CANTON, CHINA)
Suite of 9 photographs, comprising 7 of the city and topography of Canton, plus 2 hand-colored portraits. Albumen prints, sizes ranging from 6 1/4x8 1/2 to 7x9 1/2 inches (15.9x21.6 to 17.8x24.1 cm.), 8 are affixed to the original mounts, including the 2 portraits which are mounted, unidentified, and hand-colored, one may depict William Harry Coffman and his wife; 8 with caption information on mount recto, the unmounted print with caption information on verso. 1870s

Additional Details

From the Estate of Fong Chow.

Flower Pagoda (and variant) Bustling market scene 3 scenes of the Canton River Confucius Temple Unidentified building Scene of Shameen.

After receiving his Master's Degree in Ceramics from Alfred University, Fong Chow (1923-2012) was named Chief Designer for Glidden Pottery, the American equivalent of stoneware associated with the Chinese Song Dynasty (960-1279), and which was known as "Cizhou ware." Soon after, he was hired as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he worked for twenty-five years.

During his tenure, Chow was responsible for the installation of Chinese ceramics in the Benjamin Altman and John D. Rockefeller, Jr. wings and two Chinese Buddhist sculpture galleries. He acquired for the museum important Chinese and Japanese paintings, Korean ceramics, and Indian sculptures. Chow was a lifelong collector of photographs.

Fong Chow was very proud to be the first grandson of Sir Shouson Chow. He married Maud Chaolin Tsien in 1960, who was the youngest daughter of Tsien Tai, the Chinese Ambassador to France.