China: a Manchu bride in her wedding clothes with her maid, Beijing. Photograph by John Thomson, 1869.

Two women amid large rocks. A building in the distance. The woman on the right has very elaborate hair with many flowers and trailing tassles, she holds a folding fan and wears an embroidered silk robe. The third and fourth fingers of her left hand have metal [?] nail guards. She rests her arm for support on that of the other, plainly-dressed, woman

A Manchu bride in her wedding clothes with her maid. According to an old Manchu custom, a girl could not be betrothed until she was fourteen years of age. A Manchu wedding was a painstaking affair, involving numerous rituals. The bride’s wedding dress would always be a simple red silk or cotton robe, depending on her family’s wealth. On her wedding day, she was carried to her husband’s home in a sedan chair decorated with crimson cloth. Her head was covered with a veil that was also crimson, and richly embroidered

1869

1 photograph : glass photonegative, wet collodion

Manchu lady and her maid Bears Thomson's negative number: "710"

John Thomson, Illustrations of China and its people, London, 1873-4, vol. IV, pl. XIII, fig. 33, "Manchu lady and maid"

China through the lens of John Thomson, 1868-1872, Beijing: Beijing World Art Museum, 2009, p. 27 (reproduced)

This is one of a collection of original glass negatives made by John Thomson. The negatives, made between 1868 and 1872, were purchased from Thomson by Sir Henry Wellcome in 1921

Wellcome Collection 19670i