China: a Manchu woman with her maid standing beside a bronze burner, Beijing. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

Two women standing next to an incense-burner, one holding the other's arm. The lady wears a yunjian (cloud collar). Cf. Thomson's negatives 711 and 711a. While the maid stares straight at the camera, her mistress looks askance, suggesting that Thomson was trying to move away from the formal portrait tradition, attempting to portray his subjects as individuals. It also shows that he was trying to convey the ambiguous role of a Manchu maid: she was more like a companion to her lady. Although she would dress and amuse her lady, she did not do any hard labour, and was waited on by the lady's servant girl