Nine packets of incense, printed in red ink, and probably used in Tingha. From the firm 陳聯馨 “Chun Lun Hing” in Macao.
LOCATION
Inverell Pioneer Village
TRANSCRIPTION
CHUNLUNHING
DEALERIN
BESTOUALITY
JOSS STICK
MACAO
OHINA
粵東陳聯馨茄楠息香
本號虔造各品各香發客舖在澳門火船頭街開張
TRANSLATION
Benzoin and agarwood incense by Chun Lun Hing of Eastern Yuet.
This firm, whose shop is located on Rua das Lorchas, Macao, devoutly makes various forms of incense and other items for retail sale.
NOTES
粵東 “Eastern Yuet”: 粵 “Yuet” was the name of a vast area of southern China that was home to the ancient Yuet peoples, and does not correspond to the provincial or other administrative boundaries of any Chinese state. Such expressions as “粵東/東粵” “Eastern Yuet”, “粵西/西粵” “Western Yuet”, and “兩粵” “The Two Yuet” were, however, often used as literary and history-referencing substitutes for the province names “Kwang Tung”, “Kwang Hsi” and the “The Two Kwang” (both Kwang Tung and Kwang Hsi) respectively, in much the same way as the words “Hibernia” and “Caledonia” are used in English as literary and history-referencing substitutes for “Ireland” and “Scotland”. On the red-printed packaging, the more nebulous sense of the expression “Eastern Yuet” enables it to be employed in respect of Macao, which was not, at the time in question, part of the province of Kwang Tung, but rather a Portuguese colony.
陳聯馨 “Chun Lun Hing”: The wholesale and retail incense-manufacturing firm of 陳聯馨 “Chun Lun Hing” is still in business, and trades today in Hong Kong under the romanisation Chan Luen Hing. The firm’s first premises were established in 1877–8 in Macau, which became a centre for the incense industry, boasting over twenty manufacturers, of which “Chun Lun Hing” was one of the largest. 陳天祥 “Chun Lun Hing” was one of eighteen members of an incense manufacturers’ guild that formed in 1898–9. 陳天祥 “Chan Tin Cheung”, another Macao firm, whose name is on the Incense Crate was another member of this guild. See also Multicolour-printed incense stick packaging for another incense package from 陳聯馨 “Chun Lun Hing”.
Incense manufacturer’s guild: For more information, see 蔡珮玲 [Cài Pèilíng], 澳門神香業 [Àomén Shénxiāngyè “Macao’s Religious Incense Sector”], pp. 55–56.
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