22. June 2022

If you’ve read Paul French‘s excellent book City of Devils you of course heard of famous Shanghai slot machine king “Jack” E.T. Riley. Jack was known to have been a longtime supporter of the Marines, and they in turn helped save his butt more than once. What, to our knowledge, previously was not known is that before joining spirits merchant Gande, Price & Co in late 1933 (where his “commercial record was above reproach”), Jack gave it a shot on his own to distribute U.B.C. –...

31. October 2021

Interesting to note that Martell’s Chinese brand name then still was 麦退而, based on the Shanghainese pronunciation “Mah-r-the”, in comparison to its modern day transliteration 马爹利 pronounced “Madieli” in Mandarin. Founded in 1715, Martell is the oldest of the great cognac houses and its original Chinese name was first mentioned in an 1872 Shun Pao newspaper article. Gande, Price & Company Ltd were wine and spirits merchants founded in 1892 with branches in Hong Kong,...

30. August 2021

Sun Sun Sky Terrace Restaurant Wine List from the MOFBA collection

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...