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...
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...
24. January 2022
Tobralco was a fabrics brand by British company Tootal Broadhurst Lee Co, which was founded 1799 in Manchester. In 1918 a research department was established, which carried out early work on creating crease resistant fabric. The company was notable for its early use of brand names and was a leader in the field of selling direct to retailers. By 1939, the firm had spinning, weaving and yarn dyeing factories across England and 5 branches overseas. Additionally the company had agencies throughout...
13. September 2021
Presumably early 1920s as the eventual (and extremely popular!) Chinese brand name 老刀牌is not yet used, the key visuals cannon although is already trivialized. Read the brands back story and evolution here.
24. August 2021
Pirate by British tobacco producer W.D. & H.O. Wills (later exclusively distributed by British American Tobacco), was one of the earliest Western cigarette brands to enter China in 1891. It was also one the most, if not the most well known foreign tobacco brands. Caricature Circles was a short live cartoon magazine published by Shanghai Cartoon Construction Publishing House under Wang Dunqing, as Editor-in-Chief The above cartoon is from the first edition. Only a total of 8 issues was ever...
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