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a group of men in uniform posing for a picturetwo pictures of a dirt road and a vase of flowerstwo pictures of a couple of people sitting at a tabletwo pictures of a vase of flowers on a tabletwo pictures of a garden with flowers and a fenceportrait of a man in a military uniform in a black and white photoblack and white photo of a group of men in uniformsan old photo of a group of people posing for a picturean old black and white photo of a group of men in uniforma black and white photo of a group of women and menblack and white photograph of a group of men standing in front of a shipa man that is walking his dog on the side of the roadtwo black and white photos of a ship with a bunch of people on itan old black and white photo of a group of men standing in front of a buildingblack and white photograph of a group of men standing outside of a buildingtwo black and white photos of people in a boat on the wateran old drawing of a map of a town with a river running through itan old photo of a boat on the watera boat that is docked in the water next to other boatsa black and white photo of a boat in a docktwo black and white photos of a boat in a docktwo black and white photos of a man standing in front of a boata black and white photo of a boat on the waterblack and white photo of a group of men standing on the deck of a boata black and white photo of a ship in the watera black and white photo of a boat on the watera black and white photo of a ship in the watera black and white photo of a boat in the watermany people on a boat in the water by the shorea black and white photo of a group of people near a riveran old black and white photo of a woman on a horsea black and white photo of two men and a childa black and white photo of a man holding a bat in front of a group of mena black and white photo of a monkey hanging from a treea black and white photo of a group of men standing in a lineblack and white photograph of a group of people walking in a fieldblack and white photo of a group of men on a boat in the watertwo black and white photos of a man sitting on a bedan old black and white photo of a man with a camera in a fieldblack and white photograph of a large building with a clock towermany beds lined up in a room with a man standing next to themblack and white photograph of a group of people standing in front of a buildinga man and a dog standing in a yarda black and white photo of a man and woman in a dining room
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257 - [Photographs – Navy]
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Estimate €1,500 - €2,500
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Description
[Photographs – Navy] Raoul Poupelain (1884–1972), a doctor in the French Navy, on an expedition to China A substantial collection of over 780 photographs, dating from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, from Raoul Poupelain, a naval medical officer seconded to the French colony in China from 1908 until the mid-1920s, including: approx. 600 images on positive and negative stereoscopic glass plates, small and medium formats, including approx. 220 images relating to missions in China and visits to Siberia, Colombo, Hong Kong, etc. approx. 185 photographs printed on paper (photogravure), mounted on a sheet (51 x 33 cm), mostly captioned in pen, including over 125 photographs relating to China (1910–1912), such as rare views of massacres during the 1911 Sichuan uprising A fine collection of photographs from the Poupelain family: Portraits and family scenes, outings, landscapes, the Sainte-Elisabeth nursery in Compiègne (exterior and interior), seascapes (hospital ship, gunboats, ship’s review, Brest harbour, etc.), including 9 colour Autochrome prints on A. Lumière plates, circa 1905–1907, 18 x 8.5 and 9 x 9 cm (group of naval medical officers, bouquets of flowers, seaside) Views of China: Ichang Gorge (April 1911) – Fung-Tu Pagoda – Tang Kia To – Li Che Huen Pagoda – Ploughing a rice field (April 1912) - A team of trackers at Wan-Hien (April 1912) – Sin Long Tan – Wan-Hien, a junk being hauled – Entrance to the Nur-Kan-Ma-Fé Gorge – Shanghai – The German gunboat ‘Otter ’ – The ‘Doudart de Lagrée’ in the dock at Shanghai (4 views; gunboat built in 1908–1909, transported in parts from Saint-Nazaire to Shanghai) - ‘L’Olry’, a former French gunboat - The French gunboat ‘Décidée’ - Chong King, French Navy: officers’ terrace, sack race amongst sailors, building with arcades - Training of recruits (March 1912) – Tchen-tou, the new government, the head of a mandarin who remained loyal to the Emperor – Toan-Fang, imperial commissioner massacred by his own soldiers (November 1911) – Chinese heads hung near the spot where they had committed theft (January 1912) - Chinese torture - Kiang Ka Tous, portico - Yé-Tan, rapids, junks being hauled - Shih-Pao-Tchai, the pagoda - Hankow, the Chinese town (1,070 kilometres from Shanghai) - Hankow, the low-water quay – etc. Pen-and-ink drawing with colour highlights of China, titled *Sichuan is the province where the Doudart de Lagrée is stationed*. This gunboat sails between Ichang and Kiating, 21 x 30 cm Born in Clérac (Charente-Maritime), Raoul Poupelain enlisted as a volunteer on 9 November 1904 as a cadet at the Naval Medical Service School in Bordeaux. He then joined the training school in Toulon. He was appointed a 3rd-class naval doctor (1907), 2nd-class naval doctor (1908) and 1st-class naval doctor (1913). On 19 November 1908, he was assigned to serve on the gunboat Olry, in the Far East Naval Division, replacing Dr Bourrut-Lacouture. He was posted to Sichuan, Chongqing and Shanghai until the mid-1920s.
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Auction time 10/08/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures modified on 09/07/2026 at 3:51 PM
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