Dated to c.1911, that grim image is part of an album of close on 100 photographs, sold at £5500 by Halls (20/12% buyer’s premium) of Shrewsbury on March 18, that relate to a tumultuous period of Chinese history known in European terms as the ‘Revolutionary Foreign Concessions Period’.
A number of cities were divided into ‘concession territories’ and through an agreement with the Qing dynasty rulers, Japan, the US, Britain and a number of other European powers administered different areas while fighting between Chinese loyalists and rebels was still going on.