Cigarette Case presented to AA Malcolm of the Shanghai Power Company, 1935

A Chinese-made silver cigarette box c.1935 with a three spirited imperial five-clawed dragons. The center of the lid features a circular engraved presentation medallion which reads: ‘PRESENTED TO A.A. MALCOLM BY CHINESE STAFF RIVERSIDE S.P.C. MARCH 1935’.

A fairly standard presentation cigarette box but the inscription makes it interesting. Riverside S.P.C. refers to the Riverside Station of the Shanghai Power Company (S.P.C.), which was one of the largest power plants in Asia during the 1930s. Originally commissioned as a coal-fired plant with a 65-meter chimney in 1897 and later known as the Nanshi Power Plant it is now redeveloped as the Power Station of Art (PSA), China’s first state-run contemporary art museum, located on the Huangpu River.

Malcolm, who lived on Haerbin Road (now Harbin Lu) worked for the SPC until the Japanese occupation of Shanghai and then, I believe, was interned. Malcolm had obviously been in Shanghai some time – in 1925 he is listed as a “charge engineer” (responsible for the design, implementation, and maintenance of battery storage control systems) working for the “Electricity Department” of the Shanghai Municipal Council.