20. June 2023
This exquisite chocolate box from our collection unveils the exceptional history of Russian-Jewish immigrants who from the 1920s to 1940s, built a vast chocolate production empire, spanning across four factories in four Chinese cities and operating seven outlet stores.
05. December 2022
The crumb trail of Bakerite leads us back to the American James David Sullivan, who after serving in the Spanish American War, came to China at the turn of the century and established the Denniston & Sullivan photo supplies store on Broadway (today’s Daming Rd.) in the Shanghai International Settlement. In June 1906 Sullivan sold the business to former employees Messrs. L.L. Hopkins and J.J. Gilmore who continued to operate it but moved it to Nanking Rd. (todays Nanjing East Rd.)
14. August 2022
A stunning illustration on this vintage box by the Chinese “Healthy” Pure Silk Hosiery brand (健美牌). The voyeuristic perspective and dramatic interaction of light and shadow is reminiscent of American realist painter Edward Hoppers art. Even more intriguingly though, the lady’s thin long eyebrows and her short hairstyle with romantic waves undoubtedly dates the image to the 1930s, while the low-key black and white setting in an inner-city apartment with Venetian blinds is much more...
20. June 2022
A beautiful (and unopened!) art-deco design tea tin of "Selected Tea" by the Sincere Co. Shanghai. Sincere was the first Chinese-owned department store in Shanghai, opened in 1917. It was also the first of the "4 Big Department Stores" of Old Shanghai, followed by the Wing-On, the Sun Sun and the Sun. The relentless competition between them spurred modern retail innovations throughout the 1920s, 30s and 40s, such as in this case consumer packaged goods under "Sincere's" own private label brand...
22. May 2022
The brand by British manufacturer W.D. & H.O. Wills was one of the first machine-made Western cigarettes introduced to the Chinese market in the late 20th century. When British American Tobacco (BAT) was formed in 1902 it took over all the assets and brand rights for China from Wills and would turn Ruby Queen into one of the most recognized and successful tobacco brands in the first Republic of China. At one point in the 1920s Ruby Queen would even become the second most popular cigarette...
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.
16. August 2021
Introduced in 1923, Hatamen was one of British American Tobaccos (BAT) best selling brands besides Ruby Queen, Chienmen and Pirate. After the Communist Liberation BAT's assets were transferred to the state-owned Shanghai Tobacco Company in 1951. The Hatamen brand was continued until 1963 when it was suspended for being "too colonial". That is until 1992 when Qingdao Cigarette Factory relaunched cigarettes under that name (but with different logo and key visuals). Unlike in the case of the...
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