A Curiosity Stall At the City Gate (1894)
“At the Old North Gate of the City of Shanghai, the small wooden bridge which spans the city moat is thronged with natives passing into and out of the city, and a number of old men have old curiosity shops on a very small scale; they take up their position at the approaches to the bridge, and expose for sale all sorts of old articles, generally of very little value. Both sides of the short winding-path from the bridge to the gate is occupied by these men, and on the bridge itself old clothes dealers exhibit native garments of every description, stretched out on bamboo canes and leaning up against the parapet rails. Others have most extraordinary collections of old and worthless curiosities. The articles are laid on mats on the ground, on trays, or in small boxes and baskets, and the vendors sit beside their lots, squatting on a mat, smoking long pipes, reading a native newspaper or book, or perhaps more actively engaged in pursuit of a flea. The articles in some lots are really a curious mixture of native and foreign goods; here are a pair of thick-soled pipe-clayed Chinese shoes, a pair of hempen sandals, an old white hat of London make, a box of nails, Chinese type and carved blocks, an opium pipe, a basket full of old corks, and a smaller lot in a box, selected as being of more than ordinary value, as they still retain patches of yellow, red, or black sealing wax, with vintners’ names and trade marks; shirt studs, watch keys, ear-rings, jade-stone amulets, screw nails, old knives, small mirrors, miniature wooden gods, Chinese cash of various dynasties, miscellaneous coins, and a bronze halfpenny bearing the image and supescription of Victoria, D.G., F.D., Reg. Brit., &c., of 1861. The halfpenny, and all the oilier valuable articles, might have been purchased for a few cents.”
John D. Clark, Sketches in and Around Shanghai (1894).