Item No: #307720 Clay Street Hill, Chinatown, San Francisco (B 3096) [backed with] Chinese Restaurant, S. F., Cal. (B 5). Isaiah W. Taber.
Clay Street Hill, Chinatown, San Francisco (B 3096) [backed with] Chinese Restaurant, S. F., Cal. (B 5)

Chinatown Images on Both Sides of the Mount

Clay Street Hill, Chinatown, San Francisco (B 3096) [backed with] Chinese Restaurant, S. F., Cal. (B 5)

Taber, Isaiah W.

Notes: Two Taber images taken in San Francisco's Chinatown, on a contemporary cardstock mount, probably removed from an album.

The photograph of Clay Street offers a sunlit view of the street, looking down hill. A Chinese man in a work apron is walking in the foreground, facing the camera. Other men walk away from Taber's lens or cross the street as a cable car reaches the intersection. Signs for two businesses are clearly visible on the right hand side. The tall vertical sign in the immediate foreground advertises Yuantang's (元堂) shop with medicinal herbs from various provinces of China. A sign farther back, at the corner of the next street, advertises Tai Ning Tong (太寧堂), another Chinese medicine shop.

On the back (verso) of the card, mounted in the opposite orientation, is a photograph of a Chinese restaurant, showing the entry hall opening out into the dining room, which has tables and chairs but no people.

Albumen silver prints on thin photographic paper, roughly 4-3/4 by 7-1/2 inches, on a slightly larger mount. Captioned in strips along the bottom of the negatives.

Edition + Condition: Clay Street print with good contrast. The upper portion of the restaurant view is washed out, not affecting any important details. The mount has been trimmed.

Publication: San Francisco: Taber Photo. (ca. 1890).

Item No: #307720

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