25. April 2024

This postcard from our collection shows a billboard ad for May Blossom cigarettes on the “West Bridge” leading to Shamian Island in Guangzhou, China. An opportunity to explore the charming former concession area that retains much of its historic atmosphere to this day.

12. September 2023

This 1930s postcard from our collection reminds us of the lost profession of billboard painter, signwriter or “wall dogs” as its practitioners were often colloquially called. Commercial advertising has a long history in China and in the West but as an industry only emerged several centuries after the invention of Woodblock printing in China in the 9th century, and of the printing press by Gutenberg in around 1436. These technologies eventually allowed for the mass production of flyers,...

07. August 2023

Although cocoa was introduced to Europe sometime in the 16th century it was not until the Industrial Revolution that new processes emerged which sped the production of chocolate and with that the development of an affordable mass market product. In 1824, John Cadbury, began selling tea, coffee and drinking chocolate in Bull Street in Birmingham, England. In 1847, John became a partner with his brother Benjamin and the company became known as "Cadbury Brothers”. The new firm began exporting...

24. April 2023

This stunningly illustrated 1933 advertisement for Federal cigarettes from our collection tells the history of the British company Major Drapkin, which was one of the last foreign companies to ever advertise in Republican China. Major Drapkin & Co was a tobacco manufacturer founded in England in 1898. Its best-selling brand was The Grey’s, named after the Royal Scots Greys cavalry regiment of the British Army. The company eventually became part of the United Kingdom Tobacco Co which got...

03. April 2023

This historic postcard from our collection of a Japanese barricade beneath a Coca-Cola billboard, undoubtedly portrays one of the most surreal moments in Shanghai’s history. A closer investigation of the multiple depictions of this scene however leads to a surprising realization. Firstly, the location is given as near the Isis Theatre. This establishment was just outside of the International Settlement boundaries in Hongkew district on the corner of North Szechuen Rd & Jukong Rd (todays...

15. May 2022

The iconic image of the most "Well known Sword Juggler in Shanghai City". On top the trained eye will notice a poster for Japanese brand “The Ikatsu” (胃活及人像). The gastrointestinal medicine brand was created in 1899 in Osaka by Shintendo Yamada Anmin Pharmacy - a precursor company of Japanese Rohto Pharmaceutical (ロート製薬), which exists to this day.

11. May 2022

Advertisement calendar posters were the most important of the many forms of visual advertisement in China. They were introduced from the West and printed in glowing color lithography. These calendars posters, known in China as yuefenpai, were directed primarily at Chinese, not Western, customers. Most often, calendar images supplied by printers had little or no connection with the product or service being retailed. They were produced with an abundance of different pictures to appeal to a range...

02. May 2022

The American Safety Razor Company was a personal care brand founded in 1906 by a merger of the Gem Cutlery Company & Ever-Ready and was a principal competitor to Gillette for over a century. The Ever-Ready brand had been created in 1905 and razors were continued to be sold under that name until the early 1960s.

25. April 2022

04. April 2022

"Sometime ago a foreign company, started a vast million-dollar campaign to boost its brand into the Chinese market. For months there appeared not only in all papers but also in Chinese general storekeepers, restaurants, theatres, and public amusement grounds large advertisements depicting a ponderous Chinese character (烤) with a circle encircling it. There was no effort to explain that lone character (烤), which stood for "toasted", and led one to wonder whether it was meant for toasted pork...