Summary

Paper Bushells China Tea advertisement cut out of The Australian Women's Weekly, 7 January 1950. The advertisement appears on page 48 and has an image of a Chinese woman, which is stylistically reminiscent of Shanghai advertising posters of the 1920s.

Bushells was founded in Brisbane in 1883 as a tea shop by Alfred Bushell and soon proved to be popular. Alfred's sons, Philip and Walter joined and helped expand the business in 1899 and Bushell and Co moved into George St, Sydney, by then supplying tea across Australia.

Physical Description

Paper Bushells China Tea advertisement cut out of The Australian Women's Weekly. The advertisement appears on page 48 and has a green, black, and yellow background. An image of a Chinese woman with hair parted in the centre, wearing blue stone earrlings and a red cheongsam, stylistically reminiscent of Shanghai advertising posters of the 1920s. She is holding a green porcelain cup and saucer not unlike celadon porcelain with with a handle, like a British porcelain tea cup. In the bottom left hand corner is an image of the product box 'Bushells china flavoured Tea' in green and white with a traditional scene with boats, mountains and a tree.

Significance

The significance of the Bushells China Tea advertisement from 1950 lies in its use in the image of a stereotypical Chinese woman, dressed fashionably in a cheongsam drinking tea from a western tea cup to market Chinese flavoured tea to an Australian market, particularly to female readers of the Australian Women's Weekly. The imagery of the advertisement speaks to the way oriental imagery is stylised and made fashionable to a western audience which continues in advertising and fashion up to the present day.

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