The British Hong-Kong Tea Company, London
Hugh Farmer: Does anyone know if this London company had any connection to Hong Kong apart from in its name?
This advert is from 1847 courtesy of the superb British website www.gracesguide.co.uk. I don’t know where it was originally published.
Note that “Nobility, Gentry, Clergy, Hotel & Boarding House Keepers …may be supplied with packages”. That leaves most of us out then.
This article was first posted on 1st March 2014.
See: http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/images/0/0e/Im1847SLCD-HK.jpg
More info here:
http://books.google.com/books?id=tgs-AAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA8&ots=DNXGHjbcxu&dq=%22british%20hong%20kong%20tea%22&pg=PA8#v=onepage&q=%22british%20hong%20kong%20tea%22&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=7xRAAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA488-IA3&ots=qFftGb9Urt&dq=%22british%20hong%20kong%20tea%22&pg=PA488-IA3#v=onepage&q=%22british%20hong%20kong%20tea%22&f=false
http://books.google.com/books?id=yb1YAAAAcAAJ&lpg=PA64&ots=CH7kScPhpW&dq=%22british%20hong%20kong%20tea%22&pg=PA64#v=onepage&q=%22british%20hong%20kong%20tea%22&f=false
Note that as well as Nicholas Lane, they’re also listed as “Little Tower-street, London” and “Nos. 14 and 15, Budge Row, Cannon Street, London”.
And according to this link:
http://books.google.com/books?id=0d1MPRC6bL8C&lpg=PA62&ots=KrcioRoC2f&dq=%22british%20hong%20kong%20tea%22&pg=PA62#v=onepage&q=%22british%20hong%20kong%20tea%22&f=false
…J. Cassell is one John Cassell, a Manchester temperance reformer” who established the company in 1843, and also founder of the Teetotal Times. He has a Wikipedia entry:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cassell
No mention is made of Hong Kong. Nor is it mentioned in this period biography, or at least if it is, Google search doesn’t find the mention:
http://books.google.com/books?id=ShEBAAAAYAAJ&dq=%22John%20Cassell%2C%20His%20Life%20and%20His%20Work%22&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q=%22John%20Cassell,%20His%20Life%20and%20His%20Work%22&f=false
…and I couldn’t find anything else connecting him to Hong Kong on Google, either. Hardly definitive, but if I had to guess, he’s likely just using the name of somewhere foreign and exotic-sounding to drum up business.