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Vintage Chinese Deco Calendar Poster for White Horse Cigarettes, c. 1936

c. 1936

The famous commercial advertising artist Hu Boxiang created this advertisement calendar poster for the British American Tobacco Company in 1931. Unlike other poster artists, Hu was k...

This 1930s advertising poster for the Gold Bar Cigarettes company draws from a well known Chinese opera scene. It melds the meticulous detail of traditional Chinese painting with the craft of color lithography. These advertisements, influenced by the Art Deco movement in the west, recall the economic boom of early 20th century Shanghai, an international center of business and trade. Today, lithograph tobacco posters...

This calendar advertisement poster for White Horse cigarettes was produced by Hu Boxiang, a famous commercial advertising artist in Shanghai during the 1920s-1930s. Framed in a highly ornate floral border, a fashionable woman poses while gathering plum blossoms, emblems of winter and eternal beauty. Dressed in a traditional qipao but with Western hairstyle and accessories, the woman reflects the rising influence of Western advertising and the Art Deco movement during the economic boom of early 20th century Shanghai. Beneath this scene is a calendar for the year 1936, surrounded by packs of prominent cigarette brands...

This framed advertising poster for Nanyang Brothers Tobacco dates to the 1920-30s and melds the meticulous detail of traditional Chinese painting with the nuanced color and fine resolution of color lithography. Known as yuefenpai, or calendar posters, these advertisements depicted fashionable women and intriguing scenery alongside annual calendars and product placements. Evolved from traditional nianhua paintings (New Year pictures), these advertising posters were strongly influenced by the Art Deco movement in the west and recall the economic boom of early 20th century Shanghai, an international center of business and trade. In this example, a young woman dressed in fine clothing and jewelry strolls through a traditional courtyard garden, surrounded by stone statues and towering pagodas. In the lower left corner is an open pack of Golden Dragon Cigarettes and below an array of cigarette brands, each a product of Nanyang Brothers Tobacco. The scene is surrounded by trailing vine scrollwork and text suggesting the poster may have been given as a corporate gift...