What is the source of these photos?

I've looked (not extensively) at old photos of theater and opera costumes (not enough to make me want to post this, but now that you mention it..), I've not run across any costumes with MCN or even many glass beads or necklaces. From my college era experience helping costume a student theater production, I'd be surprised glass would fare well with the wear and tear costumes endure. And, most of the headdresses from this period, like the one I own, seem to have pompons and fake pearls, but nothing I've noticed that look like Peking glass beads.

None of the above is expert commentary, just observations from looking at photos. Any facts or opinions are welcome.

[they're available online at the Harvard library, IIRC]

http://hcl.harvard.edu/libraries/harvard-yenching/collections/morrison/

The Hedda Morrison photos were encountered while doing cloisonne research.

http://www.beadiste.com/2015/11/puzzling-evidence-hedda-morrison-and.html

Chris, there are a couple more lacquer images; I was going to send them to you later today, but here they are:

http://beijing.virtualcities.fr/Photos/Images?as=66

(If this link doesn't take you to the images, look up Beijing/images/then click on “b” or search for image no. 11038 and 11039.)

Chris, have you found a translate function on this site?

From a modern-day perspective, I was surprised to see the whole necklace, except counting beads, incorporated into the sign.

A hand-colored drawing of such a bead shop sign is included in various editions (attributed to various authors - see OCLC) of the 1931 book Shop Signs of Peking. Here is a link to the copy posted on Sotheby's website:

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.197.html/2016/china-print-paper-l16409

the shop signs of peking (yandu sha ||| asia ||| sotheby's l16409lot8y8nmen
View auction details, art exhibitions and online catalogues; bid, buy and collect contemporary, impressionist or...

Peter Francis was the first, I think, to reference such a shop sign in the 20th century bead literature, including a sketch of the sign in his early monograph on Chinese beads and citing Louise Crane's 1927 book China in Sign and Symbol.

I am attaching an image of the sketch that appeared in Peter's monograph - also an image of the hand-colored drawing that appeared in Shop Signs of Peking.

Valerie Hector

1) Sotheby's copy:
[Fung, H.K.] THE SHOP SIGNS OF PEKING (YANDU SHANGBANG TU). PEKING: CHINESE PAINTING ASSOCIATION OF PEKING, [1931]

LIMITED EDITION, ONE OF 100 COPIES, oblong folio (250 x 310mm.), 101 fine hand-coloured illustrations on 18 leaves with English and Chinese captions, original cloth-backed brocade boards, paper label, string tied, offsetting of silver paint oils to adjacent leaves, light wear to binding with light bowing to top edges...

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.197.html/2016/china-print-paper-l16409

2) Harvard copy:

https://www.google.com/search?q=THE+SHOP+SIGNS+OF+PEKING(YANDU+SHANGBANG+TU).+PEKING:+CHINESE+PAINTING+ASSOCIATION+OF+PEKING,&rlz=1T4ADFA_enUS460US460&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjljqOa99XYAhVicd8KHZqEB5EQ_AUICigB&biw=1120&bih=566&dpr=1.5#imgrc=pvk1gXHLg_ZgRM:&spf=1515880570415

A note, the sign in the colored plate is labeled "glass bead" sign. I wonder if only glass beads were sold in the shop or the label refers to the glass beads used in the sign. Seems likely to be the former. I found a few auction catalogs from the 1920s-30s containing court necklaces (no pictures, though). This suggests that some necklaces composed of the more precious beads were collected in the early Republic?

https://www.hpcbristol.net/visual/hv20-081

Results for searches on "beaded" and "bead;" 1920s photos showing people wearing beads and beads being used to sand an object, among others:

https://www.hpcbristol.net/search?query=beaded&match_mode=any&date=&end_date=&estdate=&collection=&location=&photographer=&identifier=&title=¬es=&caption_on_mount=&caption_on_image=&orderby=identifier&orderdir=asc&show=12

https://www.hpcbristol.net/search?page=1&query=bead&match_mode=any&date=&end_date=&estdate=&collection=&location=&photographer=&identifier=&title=¬es=&caption_on_mount=&caption_on_image=&orderby=identifier&orderdir=asc&show=12

(If these links doesn't work, enter "beaded" or "bead" into the search box, select "match all words" and then search.)

(If this link doesn't take you to the images, look up Beijing/images/then click on “b” or search for image nos. 11038 and 11039.)

http://beijing.virtualcities.fr/References/Bibliography

Which one? When? Am I just being stupid?

Thanks to the collection of shop signs brought back by Fukuhara in 1939, the Museum of Tenri University (Tenri Sankōkan) has become a major place for the study of shop signs.

http://beijing.virtualcities.fr/Texts/Articles?ID=50

[Fung, H.K.]
THE SHOP SIGNS OF PEKING (YANDU SHANGBANG TU). PEKING: CHINESE PAINTING ASSOCIATION OF PEKING, [1931]

http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/lot.197.html/2016/china-print-paper-l16409

Beadsite, I believe you posted the link to the great shop sign article on virtual cities, but I just went through your posts and couldn't find it. So, just in case, here it is or is again:

http://beijing.virtualcities.fr/Texts/Articles?ID=50

From the bibliography in the above article: "The Tenri Museum has a copy of The Shop Signs of Peking (Yan du shangbang tu) (Beiping: Chinese Painting Association of Peking, 1931), which includes a document (Yan du shangbang tu dizhi) with the addresses of all the shops that displayed the shop signs represented in the book. I hope to get a copy of this document and to map out these locations on a map of Republican Beijing. Pekin no kanban, p. 16"

http://www.tenri-u.ac.jp/topics/q3tncs00000gd453-att/q3tncs00000gd4eh.pdf
This makes reference to some signs having been lost but not the list.

http://www.tenri-u.ac.jp/topics/q3tncs00000gd396-att/q3tncs00000gd3gb.pdf

I think these signs are so cool. I'm happy to know others do too!

http://beijing.virtualcities.fr/Photos/Images

And then click on the link to the supposed source bibliography for the picture. Impossible to follow, I think, to discover where this picture was actually published.

"天理大学, 天理教道友社共編"