Some More on the Elusive Ivy Achoy….

I recently posted on the mystery of Ivy Achoy. This was after seeing a portrait by Cedric Morris at the Cedric Morris and Arthur Lett-Haines exhibition at Charleston in East Sussex (the old home of Vanessa and Julian Bell). Among the various Morris painted portraits is one dated as 1922 (which may or may not be correct) and said to be of “Ivy Ichaloy”. It is a portrait of a Chinese woman in a cheongsam-style dress from the upper body up. Anyway Ivy Ichaloy turned out to Trinidadian-Chinese Ivy Achoy. You can read the post here and the comments that added some information from relatives and scholars in Trinidad.

And now my thanks to Trapper Byrne of the USA who sent me Ivy Achoy’s (successful) application to enter the United States in 1922 from the US National Archives; it’s part of the Chinese Exclusion Act files. (Achoy qualified for a student exemption to the immigration ban).

This also casts some doubt on the 1922 date on the Cedric Morris portrait at Charleston. It seems Achoy was in the USA and, perhaps, looks a little older in the portrait (though of course it is a painting and not a photograph so…) – below, which would make the date post-1922. I am not sure when Ivy left the US and if she travelled from there to the UK.

A Weekend of Festivals – Some Shots from the Felixstowe and Essex Book Festivals June 2025

Miss Brookes’ Chinese Parasol

The Beautiful Miss Brooke (1879) is a novel by Louis Zangwill, the lesser known younger brother of London novelist and playwright Israel Zangwill. It’s a rather turgid tale a young woman, art, self-discovery etc that’s plenty dated.
More interestingly the book was illustrated by WH Margetson and Herbert Horwitz and includes this illustration of Miss Bourke at home with a rather odd but interesting large Chinese parasol hanging from the ceiling of her London rooms above her without a handle. It doesn’t quite work as a light shade so i assume it is there to illustrate Miss Brookes’ style and sophistication.

A Chinese Aladdin Sampler, England, 1937…

Came across this interesting needlework “sampler” (a piece of embroidery produced as a demonstration or a test of skill in needlework) recently in England. It’s from 1937 (February 24 to be precise!) and relates to the four seasons. Around the edge are various characters – Alice in Wonderland, Dick Whittington and a representation of Aladdin as Chinese (the earliest known versions of One Thousand and One Nights of course places Aladdin in a Chinese city, despite different interpretations in subsequent pantomime and Disneyesque re-tellings). You can see his magic lamp conjuring the genie as he wears a conical hat, traditional Chinese boots with upturned toes (Xue – 靴) and a Qing Dynasty queue. Aladdin was usually represented as Chinese and in China in British pantomimes of the Victorian era and beyond.

The Art-Deco Houses of Kadoorie Hill, Kowloon

My recent article for the South China Morning Post weekend “Post” magazine on art-deco in Kowloon featured a series of photographs, as below. Click here to read in full. The cover is a detail from the art-deco shops/apartment building at 190-220 Prince Edward Road West, Kowloon and the others are of Kadoorie Hill properties by Eugene Chan….

A Purse from Helen Burton’s The Camel’s Bell, Peking

My great thanks to Tia Gretta of Buenos Aires, Argentina who sent me these pictures of a wonder Camel’s Bell purse. I’ve blogged before about American Helen Burton’s wonderful clothing, furs, accessories, art and curios store, Thew Camel’s Bell, in the Grand Hotel de Pekin on Chang’an Avenue that was open in the inter-war years. I’ve also shown examples of another purse (click here to read that post). Burton produced many purses, handbags and other accessories under her own brand using local materials and seamstresses. This needlepoint purse from Tia is in excellent condition and very beautiful.

Her Lotus Year: Wallis at the American Lido, Peking, 1925

Here’s Wallis (nearest camera) in the summer of 1925 swimming at the lido in the American Legation in Peking. The man sitting beside her is Eddie Mills, an American living in Peking and working for the Salt Gabelle (China’s salt tax agency). Mills had helped Wallis with her luggage on Tianjin Station in December 1924 when she heading to Peking. They remained friends.

Her Lotus Year: China, the Roaring Twenties and the Making of Wallis Simpson is available everywhere in hardback, e-book and audiobook now…

Shanghai Municipal Police Mounted Unit, c.1905

A mounted policeman (with cutlass) in Shanghai c.1905. Photograph by Albert Henry Aiers who served in the SMP from 1902 to 1939. To be honest I’m not sure if this is a member of the SMP’s small mounted unit or a member of The Shanghai Light Horse unit of the Shanghai Volunteers? Any comments from experts most welcome!

And thanks to Robert Bickers at Bristol Uni who tells me: “Walthamstow-born Sidney George Reading (for it is he), once a furniture salesman. Sidney, possibly tiring of China ponies that were too small, left the force after 4 years and was later a tram driver in Brisbane.”