Mandarin plants, Honan Temple Gardens, Canton

Mandarin plants, Honan Temple Gardens, Canton

Notes

University of Bristol - Historical Photographs of China reference number: JC-s070.  Honan Island (Henan; Haizhu), Canton (Guangzhou).  Stereoview published by Universal Photo Art Company, Philadelphia, USA and copyrighted to C.H. Graves.  Carlton Harlow Graves was an American photographer and businessman based in Philadelphia, who published stereoview photographs, being photographs taken either by himself or by other photographers.  It is suspected that Herbert George Ponting (1870-1935) may have taken many of the photographs in China that were then published/copyrighted by Graves.  After 1901, Ponting travelled through Asia and was working under “for hire” arrangements.  Ponting later became famous as an Antarctic cinematographer and photographer, accompanying Scott’s expedition in 1910.  Graves died in USA on 6 January 1943.  Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/ralphrepo_photolog/4165839108 and https://www.flickr.com/photos/ralphrepo_photolog/4075079767.  Honan (or Ho-nan) Temple ( 海幢寺, pinyin: Haichuangsi, would could be translated as 'Ocean's Banner Temple') was in Ho-nan, which was south of the Pearl River in Canton (Guangzhou). The mandarin plants may have been sourced from the Fa-ti (Fati) Flower Gardens/Nursery (Pinyin: Huadi).  Fa-ti was near Ho-nan, just across the Pearl River from Shameen Island.  See page 66 of 'Farmers of Forty Centuries' by F.H. King (1927), for a photograph captioned 'Statuary floral pieces in florists's garden, Happy Valley, Hong Kong, China'.  See JC-s071.

Caption in album or on mount

Grotesque figures formed from plants. Honam Temple Gardens, China. Copyright 1902 by C.H. Graves / The Universal Photo Art Co. C.H. Graves, Publisher, Phila., U.S.A. / Philadelphia, Naperville, Ill. London, Paris, Hamburg.

Location

Guangzhou

Estimated Date

1902

Material

Paper

Media

Black and white photograph