COMMUNICATIONS & PUBLICATIONS

Arnholds: China Trader

In this lavishly illustrated testament to the more than 150-year old Arnholds trading company, Vaudine was able to offer a new window on turbulent times. Three men from northern Germany founded a silk company in 1866 in Hong Kong, which then rode the waves of the China trade, adapting to survive. It moved into machinery and high technology and now specialises in building products, continuing to trade through revolutions, wars, the growth of the West’s nineteenth century empires, and technological change. Its personalities changed but its Jewish character persisted - even through the time it was taken over by Sir Victor Sassoon’s Shanghai estate - through to its current ownership by Hong Kong’s Green family.