It is not a table upside down but a tool to carry a relatively heavy load steadily in between two shoulders. The 5 Chinese characters represent the name of the shop and its location. Shop name pronounced as "Kwan Yuen" (larger characters read from right to left) and the middle vertical three smaller characters were the location of the shop (direct translation as "goose-head-bridge"). Therefore suggesting the location of the shop was at the present Causeway Bay Canal Road (Chinese named as "goose-neck-bridge") near to the shore side (old time Hennessy Road).
The stuff carried on the gadget suggested the shop was a food preparing shop. It was customary for the companies at those days to also serve lunches for their employees by outsourcing to this sort of food preparing shops. The shop would then prepare dishes, rice and chopsticks to deliver to the company addresses at lunch time, and to collect them back after lunch hours. The metal caps were there to keep the dishes warm and from dust during the delivery.
The photo also suggested it was during their return journey after delivery (no bowls, empty plates or chopsticks seen). The live chicken may be their purchase of the way back for the food preparation later.
The gadget was also commonly used to carry roasted pig or piglets for festive celebrations.
Comments
chicken
It is not a table upside down but a tool to carry a relatively heavy load steadily in between two shoulders. The 5 Chinese characters represent the name of the shop and its location. Shop name pronounced as "Kwan Yuen" (larger characters read from right to left) and the middle vertical three smaller characters were the location of the shop (direct translation as "goose-head-bridge"). Therefore suggesting the location of the shop was at the present Causeway Bay Canal Road (Chinese named as "goose-neck-bridge") near to the shore side (old time Hennessy Road).
The stuff carried on the gadget suggested the shop was a food preparing shop. It was customary for the companies at those days to also serve lunches for their employees by outsourcing to this sort of food preparing shops. The shop would then prepare dishes, rice and chopsticks to deliver to the company addresses at lunch time, and to collect them back after lunch hours. The metal caps were there to keep the dishes warm and from dust during the delivery.
The photo also suggested it was during their return journey after delivery (no bowls, empty plates or chopsticks seen). The live chicken may be their purchase of the way back for the food preparation later.
The gadget was also commonly used to carry roasted pig or piglets for festive celebrations.
Name of Bridge
At this magnification, it doesn't look like GOOSE 鵝
bridge name
This is the best and nearest guess that I can offer according to the blurred and script type.