Through a Lens Darkly (41): Three Views of a Young Boxer

Vintage postcard showing a “Young Boxer” with sword. Early 20th century. Source: Authors personal collection.

Meeting the Boxer

I recently had the good fortune to meet one of my favorite Chinese Boxers.  I had been stalking him for years.

This early 20^th century postcard was probably purchased in Beijing and then mailed to Tianjin on February 5^th, 1909.  The card itself was published by J.H. Schaefer’s Kunstchromo, Amsterdam.  While this firm used a number of Chinese images, I have never seen any others dealing with the same model or subject.  Given that this postcard was printed in the Netherlands (or possibly Germany) it seems safe to assume that it was sold all over Europe.

This particular example also seems to have been fairly popular.  Only a small proportion of the postcards printed in the early 20^th century have survived.  As a result, many of the images…