Posts tagged with "antique"



18. April 2022
A mysterious anachronistic and out of place trading card from the MOFBA collection
While there is some debate over what event exactly marked the end of the American Indian Wars, it is commonly considered to have been the Battle of Wounded Knee in December 1890. The same year the US Census Bureau broadcast the closure of the Frontier, meaning that in the West there remained no more apparent tracts of land without settlers. What we do know for sure is that almost exactly 13 years later, on a rather windy December morning in 1903, the brothers Wright launched the first...
22. September 2021
While old Tianjin (then called Tientsin), was second only to Shanghai as Western treaty port in terms of size and foreign population with its up to 9 concessions, the Quanyechang was absolutely on par with its contemporaries in Shanghai such as the Sincere, Wing On and Sun Sun. The English language press referred to it as Tientsin Bazaar or the Tientsin Exhibition of Industrial Encouragement. Located on the busiest commercial intersection of Tientsin on Rue du Maréchal Foch and Rue de Chaylard...
05. September 2021
Brunner, Mond & Co /卜內門洋行 was one of the large British trading houses ("Hongs"), having setup their operations in Shanghai as early as 1890. In 1922 the company erected its own building on 133 Szechuen Rd., designed by Stewardson & Spence. In December 1926 Imperial Chemical Industries (I.C.I.) was founded from the merger of four companies: Brunner Mond, Nobel Explosives, the United Alkali Company, and British Dyestuffs Corporation. For much of its history it was the largest...
14. June 2021
Taken from the book "Food Facts" published by The Shanghai Times. J.A. Folger & Co. was established 1850 in San Francisco as Wm. H. Bovee & Co and was the first coffee brand to offer roasted and ground coffee ready for brewing. Procter & Gamble acquired Folger's in 1963 and during that time became the number one coffee brand in America. The "Agent for China", Getz Bros. mentioned in the ad was also founded in the 1850s in California by Joseph and Max Getz. By the 1870s, the brothers...
16. April 2021
Although neither the first, nor the largest in terms of billings or staff, Carl Crow Inc undoubtedly was the most famous advertising agency of old Shanghai – thanks to its founder, American ad-man, author and adventurer Mr. Carl Crow. his company never employed more than 20 people - three times fewer than the Chinese Commercial Advertising Agency (C.C.A.A.) and six times fewer than its British competitor Millington Ltd. - but it was well known for its family-like company culture and secondly...
28. September 2020
From the middle of the 19th century, preventing dangerous diseases caused by polluted water, such as typhus or cholera, was a great concern to many people, not only in Vienna. Only few households had a guaranteed supply of clean water. One was in danger despite or perhaps especially because of having an own well. The pollution increased as the population grew and the first supply networks did not suffice in the least. In 1873, the first spring water line supplied pure water to many Viennese...
20. July 2020
30. June 2020
Buick China enamel sign from the MOFBA collection
Buick is one of the oldest automobile brands in the world and the oldest in the United States. The first two Buick automobiles were made in 1899 and 1900 at the "Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company" by founder David Dunbar Buick and chief-engineer Walter Marr. Subsequently in 1904 William C. Durant was brought in as controlling investor. Durant built a few more model B's in 1904, and greatly stepped up production for the model C in 1905, then spent the next four years turning Buick into the...
19. June 2020
Today it was announced that controversial toothpaste brand Darlie will finally rebrand it's Chinese name 黑人牙膏, which literally translates To "Black Man Toothpaste".