05. July 2023
This lovely ca. 1935 advertising booklet for the Astor House Hotel from our collection has a centerfold map & offers the perfect opportunity to take you on a journey through old Tianjin, the second biggest foreign settlement of Republican China. Tianjin, or Tientsin as it was once called, is located 140km South-East of Beijing on the shore of the Bohai sea and its Chinese name translates to "Heavenly Ford" or "Ford of Heaven". After the end of the Second Opium War in 1858 the Treaty of...
22. May 2023
This German-language advertisement booklet from our collection is by itself a bit of a conundrum, but also reminds us of a puzzling episode that happened at the hotel during the Battle of Shanghai in 1937.
15. February 2023
This marvelous commemorative booklet from our collection was published on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the celebrated Shanghai Union Brewery. It offers an intriguing testament to Shanghai’s world-famous history of commerce, design, architecture and… tragedy.
16. January 2023
Last week would have been László Hudec’s 130th birthday. In celebration of Shanghai’s most well-known architect, here is a beautiful commemorative advertising booklet from our collection about his Art Deco magnum opus: the Joint Savings Society Building, more famously known as the Park Hotel or “International Hotel” (国际饭店) in Chinese. The edifice, constructed between 1931 to 1934 at 164 Bubbling Well Road (today’s No.170 Nanjing West Road), was named after the Joint Savings...
14. November 2022
The Quaker Oats trademark was registered in 1877 by Henry Seymour, an Ohio milling company owner. In 1901 his former company was merged with several other producers under the newly formed Quaker Oats Company, founded by Henry Parsons Crowell, and soon started to sell its products internationally through global distribution networks. In 1908, Quaker Oats introduced the first in a series of cookie recipes on the box and the iconic cylindrical package made its first appearance in 1915.
13. December 2021
American Express was started in 1850 as an express mail business in Buffalo, New York. In 1857, the company started its expansion in the area of financial services by launching a money order business to compete with the United States Post Office's money orders. The American Express Traveler's Cheques were launched in 1891 and established American Express as a truly international company. It also acted as passenger agency for all type of bookings including for tourist trips such as with hotel...
31. May 2021
Another unique little piece of commercial and economic history during the Shanghai foreign concessions "Solitary Island" period - still managed by the Shanghai Municipal Council and the French authorities respectively, but surrounded by Japanese military forces. Supply from the Shanghai hinterlands was heavily restricted by the Japanese and left the concession's population with mostly overseas imported goods at increasingly high prices: In fact from 1939 to 1941 prices practically doubled as...
24. October 2019
Very nice example of early branded content marketing to drive consumer education and engagement: A 1930's Nestlé Lactogen baby care guidebook for young Chinese mothers. The Lactogen brand was first introduced in 1919 and Nestlés history in China goes back to 1908 when it opened it's first distribution office in Shanghai.
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