22. November 2021
Kissy kissy... newspaper ad for Three Cats cigarettes. The brand created by Yuen Hwa Tobacco was a knock-off of British premium cigarette brand Craven "A" who's design looked identical, except that it only featured a single black cat on the logo. Because of that it was commonly referred to by Chinese consumers as "black cat brand" cigarettes. More on Craven "A" in our previous post.
14. November 2021
John Player & Sons, known simply as Player's, was a tobacco and cigarette manufacturer founded in Nottingham, England in 1877. In 1901, the company merged with other companies to form The Imperial Tobacco Company. The largest constituent of Imperial Tobacco was W. D. & H. O. Wills (producer of the famous Pirate Cigarettes) but Player's retained its own identity with cigarette brands such as Navy Cut or Clipper. Then in 1902, Imperial Tobacco Company and the United States' American...
08. November 2021
The Interessengemeinschaft Farbenindustrie AG was a German chemical and pharmaceutical conglomerate formed in 1925. In China I.G. Farben marketed itself as 大德颜料厂 - "Big German Dye Factory". It's official Chinese distribution company, Deutsche Farbenhandelsgesellschaft Waibel & Co. aka DEFAG (德孚洋行), was founded in Shanghai on January 1, 1927.
31. October 2021
Interesting to note that Martell’s Chinese brand name then still was 麦退而, based on the Shanghainese pronunciation “Mah-r-the”, in comparison to its modern day transliteration 马爹利 pronounced “Madieli” in Mandarin. Founded in 1715, Martell is the oldest of the great cognac houses and its original Chinese name was first mentioned in an 1872 Shun Pao newspaper article. Gande, Price & Company Ltd were wine and spirits merchants founded in 1892 with branches in Hong Kong,...
25. October 2021
"Wise men all choose to smoke Pirate cigarettes". They apparently are also awesome at basketball... 1930s ad poster from British American Tobacco (BAT) brand Pirate cigarettes.
18. October 2021
Crane Stores, Shoers & Hatters (鶴鳴鞋帽商店) was founded by the father of Jefferson Young, who soon after the opening of the first Shanghai store in 1936 took over the family business. The firm swiftly expanded to several locations in Shanghai and subsequently in Nanjing and Hong Kong. By 1950 it had 13 stores nationwide. Jefferson Young moved to Hong Kong in 1951 where he continued to manage the local Crane subsidiary. In 1952, Crane expanded to Singapore, soon after to Penang and...
15. October 2021
Shanghai Art Deco and Bespoke Shanghai are organizing a guided trip to the city November 19-21. Details at info@bespoketravelcompany.com
11. October 2021
An edited and enhanced version of this article was published on Historic Shanghai. If you are based in Shanghai we highly recommend their historic walking tours.
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