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...

06. June 2022

A kerosene lamp branded by Lockwood Bros, Pampa, Sheffield and Shanghai Rex & Co (公发英行 - "Kung-Fah" ). From the MOFBA collection.

30. May 2022

The Eagle Brand can be traced to 1856, when Gail Borden introduced condensed milk as the flagship product of his newly formed dairy company. In Asia the brand was licensed by the Nestlé and Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company and, in 1874, became the first registered trademark in the then-British colony of Hong Kong. On the mainland the "Fēiyīng" (飞鹰) brand was protected by a “proclamation issued by the Taotai in the ninth moon of the thirtieths year of Kuang Hsü”, meaning the...

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.

14. May 2022

For what kind of product might this mysterious trademark be, that appears to show tablet PC's from outerspace orbiting the earth? From our 1933 Chinese Trademark directory.

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...

20. February 2022

Not advertising related, but this has to be one of the most bizarre Old Shanghai tales we’ve come across. Here is what went down on March 7th 1936… Lu Fuzhi (陆敷之), the president of the 'Shanghai Commercial Fraternal Joint Trade Union', on this 40th birthday, took his 'wife' Yang Xiaoe taking off in a hot air balloon - made in France – apparently from the eastern side of Mogan Mountain, expected to arrive in Huzhou before sunset. However, the couple never arrived in Huzhou that...