12. July 2024

Cross-dressing KOL’s, German dyes and Republican China’s most prolific commercial artist: This gorgeous 1925 calendar poster for BASF from our collection, ties back to a lot of topics we previously covered. Follow along for a short but colorful review.

13. December 2023

This EWO promotional calendar from our collection tells the story of a beer once brewed in China & exported around the world incl to India. Yet it also contains a touch of false advertising which tragically leads us to one of the most sardonic murder cases of Old Shanghai.

05. September 2023

This unique 1917 Horlick’s calendar advertisement from our collection depicts a martial scene that actually takes us all the way back to the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history. Get ready for an immortal story about the mightiest of men, war, loyalty and... warm milk.

08. July 2023

This intriguing 1928 calendar poster, advertising the „Beacon” cigarette brand, was not only created by the most versatile Chinese commercial artist of the 20th century, but also leads us to explore the story of the first and largest foreign-founded tobacco manufacturer in China.

23. January 2023

Happy Chinese New Year! This rare A.S. Watsons advertisement from our collection not only has a peculiar design around the auspicious character 康 (health), but tells the origin story and evolution of the famous Chinese calendar posters which were in fact pioneered by Watsons in the 1880s together with a second British firm.

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...