Michael Lehr Antiques
Live Auction

June 2026 Vernacular Photo History Auction

Wed, Jun 24, 2026 11:00AM EDT
Lot 271

Boudoir Card Woey Sin Low Restaurant, Chinatown, I.W. Taber

Estimate: $200 - $300

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Isaiah West Taber's albumen boudoir cabinet card documenting the facade of the Woey Sin Low restaurant at 808 Dupont Street in San Francisco's Chinatown, captioned on the mount face "B 3. Chinese Restaurant, S.F., Cal. / Taber Photo., San Francisco." The Chinese characters 會仙樓 visible on the second-floor sign identify the establishment by name, meaning roughly "Meeting Place of the Immortals," one of the most celebrated and long-running restaurants in pre-earthquake Chinatown. The restaurant operated continuously from at least 1871 until it was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire.

The building presents three visible stories above a ground-floor entrance, each level decorated with hanging globe and cylindrical lanterns, ornate iron balcony railings with lace-pattern detailing, and potted plants along the roofline parapet. A large circular carved wooden medallion dominates the second-floor facade between the lanterns. A motion-blurred figure stands at the ground-floor entrance steps, and a horse-drawn delivery cart occupies the right foreground on the cobblestone street.

The floors followed the typical pattern of such Chinatown establishments: a basement commissary for laborers, main and second floors serving general and banquet customers daily, and an ornate top-floor dining room reserved for Chinatown's merchant elite and their guests, including city officials and police commanders. Taber photographed the restaurant extensively as part of his documented Chinatown series, producing some of the richest visual documentation of the district before the 1906 disaster.

The reverse is plain with no printed imprint. Pencil notations read "AL 1383" at upper right and "5300 J" along the lower right edge, likely dealer or collection inventory numbers.

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