A Purse from The Camel’s Bell, Peking…

Posted: July 6th, 2022 | 2 Comments »

I’ve blogged before about the intrepid and entrepreneurial North Dakotan Helen Burton who ran a number of interesting businesses in Peking between the wars, the best known of which was The Camel’s Bell, situated in the lobby of the Grand Hotel de Pekin on Chang’an Jie (now the Nuo Hotel portion of the much expanded Beijing Hotel). The Camel’s Bell sold curios, antiques, art, objets and fashions. It wa sa must-stop shop for the Peking Foreign Colony as well as sojourners and tourists. Helen Burton, who also had a wonderful temple out in the Western Hills for weekends and adopted a number of Chinese kids threw generally agreed the best parties in Peking.

And so my thanks to Marieanne Doyle of Indiana, USA who contacted me to show me a purse her mother purchased at The Camel’s Bell some time before World War Two. It is very beautiful. Marieanne then amazingly posted the purse (the British at the time would call it an ‘evening bag’) to me in England. So here’s a closer look at the purse, it’s beautiful beading and the legendary label….Interestingly back then ‘Made in China’ would have been exotic and exciting rather run-of-the-mill.

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