53 Eye Baths/Cups – manufactured in Hong Kong?
George Sturrock recently emailed me, “I am researching the history of eye baths and would be most grateful if you can confirm that the attached eye bath, [see first two images shown below], was marketed by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd, presumably post 1963 when A.S.Watson & Co Ltd was assimilated.
The embossed kanji inscription above reads TRADEMARK, I am told, and HUTCHISON WHAMPOA LTD within the lozenge, if read as Chinese. If this eye bath was indeed marketed by Hutchison Whampoa Ltd do you know when it was made and in which glass factory? Does the eye bath feature in old company catalogues?”
If you can answer George’s question or provide any information and/or images about eye baths being made in Hong Kong please contact the website and I’ll incorporate anything sent into new Indhhk articles and notify George.
I asked our frequent contributor York Lo if he could translate the characters below. He replied, The 4 Chinese words are Wo kee which is the Chinese name of Hutchison and Sheung Biu which means trademark.
Please note: The image shown on the Home Page of this article is of an “antique glass eye wash cup & metal insert – Glyco Thymoline Eyebath” origin unknown, Source: etsy.com
This article was first posted on 28th February 2021.
Related Indhhk articles, the last five posted Q+A articles posted were:
- Q+A52 Stink Boats – used in the removal of nightsoil from Hong Kong island in the 1960s and 70s
- Q+A51 D. & M. Rustomjee, trading firm in Canton and Hong Kong
- Q+A50 R.H. Kotewall & Co
- Q+A49 Boyd, Kaye & Company
- Q+A48 T.O.Morgan, Director of Water Supplies – imagined Plover Cove Reservoir while swimming in the area