Foochow (Fuzhou), Fukien province, China: a coppersmith at work in his shop. Photograph by John Thomson, 1871.

An interior view, showing a behatted coppersmith at work in his shop. Four other people look on, including a man wearing spectacles. Throughout his journeys in China, Thomson was always impressed by the ingenious feats of workmanship he encountered, and the fact that so many craftsmen could produce wonders in front of their humble doorways. He praised the artisan as highly respectable and indispensable, "never ashamed of his craft or the music that rings from his anvil". One such is this coppersmith he visited in Fuzhou, who was able to "take full advantage of the ductility of the metal . . . by beating it from flat sheets into the most varied and complex forms"