I recently posted some pictures of the Tientsin (Tianjin) Race Club from the Spring season, 1921. So this cup, that recently came up for auction, was of some interest having been awarded a year or two prior…
An early 20th Century silver three-handled trophy cup manufactured by Gorham Manufacturing Co, of Birmingham c.1910. The inscription ‘THE / GREAT WAR “VICTORY” CUP / WON BY / MR. A. H. WATTS ON “PENDINAS” / TIENTSIN CHAMPIONS / SPRING 1919’.
I believe the British Watts family had been resident in Tientsin for a generation or two running Watts & Co. (later, or earlier, called Watts & Buck Co.) – exchange and share brokers, auctioneers and estate agents. AH worked, at least for a time, for the Chinese Engineering and Mining Company. I think AH’s father was James Watts (Private J. Watts, a member of the Tientsin Volunteer Force) who is mentioned in regard to Tientsin during the Boxer Uprising:
“The successful defence (of Tientsin) was in a large measure due to the presence in the town of a Russian force of some one thousand seven hundred men, which had been prevented from following Admiral Seymour in his gallant attempt to rescue the Legations by the fact that the railway was cut. The most brilliant individual achievement, and the one which resulted in the relief of the city was that of Mr. James Watts. All communications with Tientsin had been destroyed, and when ammunition was running low and the defenders were talking of surrender, he volunteered to lead a troop of Cossacks through the enemy’s lines with despatches to the foreign admirals at Taku. He successfully accomplished his dangerous mission on June 19, 1900, and relief was immediately sent to the besieged. His name in connection with this act of heroism will ever be remembered gratefully in Tientsin. In recognition of his signal services the British Government, after some delay, conferred upon Mr. Watts a Companionship of the Order of St. Michael and St. George, and, in the meantime, the German Emperor signified his intention of conferring a decoration on the gallant Englishman—a spontaneous mark of appreciation, which Mr. Watts values highly.”
Two armorial dishes enameled with a coat-of-arms and the inscription ‘PALACIO DO GOVERNO DE MACAU’ and gilt exotic bird motifs…These dishes are from one of four Chinese services which were made for King Dom Luís I, King of Portugal (1838-1889), who reigned from 1861.
Jiaming Tang’s Cinema Love (John Murray) is a remarkable book for a number of reasons…
For over thirty years, Old Second and Bao Mei have cobbled together a meagre existence in New York City’s Chinatown. But unlike other couples, these two share an unusual past. In rural Fuzhou, before they emigrated, they frequented the Workers’ Cinema, where gay men cruised for love.While classic war films played, Old Second and his fellow countrymen found intimacy in the privacy of the Workers’ Cinema’s screening rooms. Elsewhere, in the box office, Bao Mei sold tickets to closeted men – guarding their secrets and finding her own happiness with the projectionist. But when secrets are unveiled, they set in motion a series of haunting events that propel Old Second and Bao Mei towards an uncertain future in America.
A Bertha Lum (1869-1954) print acquired (by the mother of a ChinaRhyming reader – many thanks) interwar at Helen Burton’s famous shop, The Camel’s Bell, in the lobby of the Grand Hotel de Pekin (on Chang’an Dajie – now the Nuo Hotel sandwiched in between a couple of the ghastly additions to the Beijing Hotel). Ot was titled “Washerwomen in the Western Hills” – apparently the San Francisco Fine Arts Museum also has one (though coloured differently)…
A brass bound camphor wood trunk, early 20th century; with inset strengthening brackets at corners and angles, each end with a brass swing handle.Most interestingly the interior has a paper label:
AH FOO, CARPENTER & CABINET MAKER FROM CANTON, CLOSE TO EASTERN MARKET, NO 32 QUEEN’S ROAD, HONG KONG
Coming November 2024…. the audiobook of my latest book, Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson – available on audible for pre-order now (here) and then on November 14 2024…
Posted: September 26th, 2024 | No Comments »
An early heads up – i’ll be at the Enoch Pratt Central Library in Baltimore (in the Edgar Allan Poe Rading Room – no pressure there!) on November 12 talking about local girl Wallis Simpson, her time in China, the roaring 20s in Hong Kong, Shanghai and Peking, a few warlords, some jade markets and what she got up to in her “lotus year” in Asia…
