[Chinese-American Photographica]: Taber, Isaiah West:

$1,500 · Offered by William Reese Company

3002 BALCONY OF THE CHINESE RESTAURANT, DUPONT STREET, SAN FRANCISCO [caption title]. [with:] 3009 DINING ROOM, OF THE CHINESE RESTAURANT, WASHINGTON STREET, SAN FRANCISCO, CAL [caption ... Two photographs of elegant Chinese restaurants in pre-earthquake San Francisco Chinatown, likely taken in the mid-1880s. The first photograph depicts the Woey Sin Low restaurant's third-floor balcony, looking past hanging glass lanterns and an ornately carved wooden window onto the corner of Dupont and Clay Streets. In front of the restaurant, a hanging banner reads "B obàn ji xí," advertising that the establishment can host and arrange banquets. The second photograph has been identified as the grand dining room at another restaurant just around the corner on Washington Street, called Bun Sun Low. After a fire in 1885, Bun Sun Low's dining room was renovated into the dramatic space pictured here, with hanging chandeliers and lanterns, and intricate carvings adorning the doors, windows, walls, and even ceiling. Despite the caption, some uncertainty exists as to the identification of this second photograph – a different image of what is clearly the same room is held at the New York Public Library, which states that the restaurant in the image was located on Dupont Street rather than Washington, suggesting it may in fact be a lower floor dining room of the Woey Sin Low restaurant depicted in the previous photo. Both restaurants were long-running fixtures of Chinatown, in operation from the 18

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