Hong Kong New Year card 1880s

Sun, 05/29/2016 - 05:45

Text on Flickr:

With no apologies for Victorian racial stereotyping, the doggerel verse at the bottom of the card reads:

 "To Topside Hill from where my stand

My look see plenty Hong so new

My neva have see place mo gland

And neva talke thing mo true

My look the roads, the ship, the tree

And thinkee my no place have see

So nice Hong Kong"

 The paint palette on the left has written on it, "A happy new year to you".

 On the reverse is a handwritten message:

 "May Christmas time bring joy to thee

And keep your hearts from sorrow free"

 At least three of the Dunlop brothers would have travelled to and worked in Hong Kong between the 1870s and 1890s. My money is on John Mitchell Dunlop sending this home to Glasgow. He obtained his 1st class Ship's Engineer certificate in Hong Kong in November 1883.

 Original dimensions 19 x 13cm. Griffith Photo Studio.

Source: This image came from Flickr, see https://flickr.com/photo.gne?id=5503469199

Date picture taken
31 Dec 1875
Author(s)