10. October 2022

My Dear, or Měilì (美丽牌) meaning “beautiful” in Chinese, was the most popular Chinese cigarette brand out of Shanghai during Republican China. Since its inception it was famous for the attractive, confident and modern “new women” featured in its advertisements, ubiquitous across billboards, magazines and newspapers. Its Chinese slogan 有美皆备，无丽不臻 literally means “everyone wants the beauty because without beauty there is no completeness” but in more creative...

22. June 2022

If you’ve read Paul French‘s excellent book City of Devils you of course heard of famous Shanghai slot machine king “Jack” E.T. Riley. Jack was known to have been a longtime supporter of the Marines, and they in turn helped save his butt more than once. What, to our knowledge, previously was not known is that before joining spirits merchant Gande, Price & Co in late 1933 (where his “commercial record was above reproach”), Jack gave it a shot on his own to distribute U.B.C. –...

29. March 2022

1940s letterpress printing block for "Great Dreadnaught" (大无畏) batteries advert. From the MOFBA collection

21. March 2022

Beijing-based art collector Tong Bingxue today voiced his concerns on Twitter over the authenticity of a piece currently on auction at Sotheby's. We love ourselves a good old China mystery (especially when it possibly is around false advertising) and were quickly able to not only confirm suspicions over the provenance of "the earliest known dated photograph by a Chinese photographer" but uncover a shocking lack of research and fact-checking across reputable auction houses such as Christie's,...

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.

19. September 2021

Manufactured by US company Otis and installed in 1924 at the Tientsin Astor House Hotel, when an additional building was joined to the original structure built in 1863. Otis was distributed in China by their agent American Trading Company until in 1930 the company established it's own office, located in the Shanghai Sassoon House.

17. September 2021

"We wish to serve Good Clients and want Good Clients to help us "

13. September 2021

Sketch of a proposed "ricsha advertising plan for Shanghai", submitted to the Municipal Council by the National Advertising Agency in November 1927. After some back and forth with the Traffic Committee and the Secretary to Commissioner of Police, the Council did in fact grant permission to utilize the public ricsha and its puller for advertising purposes in February 1928! Whether it was ever implemented though we do not know - no photographic record has been found so far. Source: S.M.C....