Headdress, Canton woman - Public domain portrait print

Photograph shows a Chinese woman, full-length portrait, standing, facing left, holding umbrella.
Title from back of item.
Caption written on front of item misidentifies image as " Coolie".
Caption on back continues: "This elaborate way of dressing the hair is peculiar to Canton and is called the "tea-pot" style. when once the hair is arranged as may be easily imagine it is an object of serious solicitude to keep it in shape the time taken up in arranging the coiffure being so great as to preclude the possibility of doing it every day to meet this difficulty Chinese women sleep on a wooden pillow, and always lie on their sides the pillow itself is hollow, and is a receptacle for their brushes, combs, rings, jade ornaments, &c. so that they always have their valuables not under, but within their pillows."
Photograph taken by John Thomson in Shanghai, 1870-72. (Source: Regine Thiriez, 2009)
In album: Japanese and Chinese portraits, [p. 46, lower left].