The Shanghai Auto Show 1921

When reading a Wikipedia page about the Shanghai Auto Shows, I was surprised to read that Wiki tells us that the first Shanghai Show was held in 1985.  That is not true.
The first Show in Shanghai was held 64 years before, in November-December 1921.
There seems to have been some minor exhibitions in Shanghai, in 1906 and 1927. But the main big show was in 1921, I missed that one when I wrote about earlier Chinese auto shows.
With help of the magazine Oriental Motor, published in those years, I give you a review of the 1921 show.

The Show was organized by a number of enthousiastic Shanghai car dealers, importers and body builders. It was housed in the French concession (Verdun Gardens), Avenue Joffre (Huaihai Zhong Road) one block west of the Route des Soeurs (Ruijin First Road).

The Show was opened by the French Consul-general.

There was no place big enough to host the show. Temporarily buildings were the solution. The four buildings were made with a bamboo framework and covered by rush mats made of three thicknesses of oiled paper.
The surface of the show was 6500 m2.

In the Avenue Joffre was a big illuminated arch. The booths inside the halls were on both sides of the main aisles.

And now about the exhibitors. You can find more about the most important companies in China Car History.

The Central Garage Company (中央汽车公司) showed a large number of mechanical exhibits, to teach the Shanghai men and women, particularly the Chinese, the fundamentals of the motor car and its various accessories. In the center of the booth was a ‘cut out’ Willys-Knight chassis.

The ‘star’ display in the Central Garage booth was undoubtedly a beautiful blue  Armstrong Siddeley limousine.

Not a woman visitor at the show who didn’t imagine herself the proud owner of that car, and happy as any queen in its possession. (Yes, also from the Oriental Motor, December 1921).

Truly, everybody who went for Verdun Gardens had a friendly feeling for the Sunbeam, and that friendliness took practical form is proven by the fact that the car under notice hadn’t been on the stand two hours before a SOLD sign was placed on one of its running boards.

There were about 27 cars exhibited by the Central Garage (when I counted it right): 2 A.C., 2 Angus-Sanderson, 1 Armstrong-Siddeley, 3 Austin, 4 Chalmers, 4 Morris Oxford, 3 Overland, 3 Sunbeam, 2 Templar, 1 Willys Knight and 2 Wolseley.

The China Garage Company (中国车库公司) showed a 16-passenger Garford bus, the coachwork built in their shops. China Garage also showed Dennis and Federal chassis.

The exhibit of the Wah Chang Trading Corporation (Huachang) (华昌贸易公司) deserved first prize for its beauty and artistic arrangement. Two Nash cars were shown at the Wah Chang booth.

The China Motors Ltd. (中华汽车公司) booth was ‘too big and too magnificent for an automobile show’. In the center of the display space on raised platform was a beautiful Chandler roadster with a glass hood top.

For most part the cars exhibited in the China Motors’booth were equipped with custom built (extremely beautiful) bodies in their own shops.

I counted: 4 Hupmobile, 3 Chandler, 3 Cleveland, 3 Dodge and 2 Crossley, in total 15 cars. China Motors was one of the seldom booths on the show with some motor cycles.

Pictures of the H.S. Honigsberg & Co., Inc. (亨茂洋行) display will entirely revise the ideas of China, and to wonder how these ideas could have been so badly mistaken in previous conception of how things are done in this part of the world.  

A landmark building in the show was the pyramid with 468 Pennsylvania vacuum cup tires, a pyramid 4 meters wide at the bottom en 6 meters high.

Honigsberg showed a Buick 49 model 1921 of which the chassis was completely stripped. The ‘cut out’ was done in Shanghai in the Honigsberg shops.

Honigsberg showed two brand new Buick ‘Four’, four other Buick of the models 45 and 49, three Cadillac, two Chevrolet of which one was a 490 with a Honigsberg body, and two Packard. And two Stewart motor trucks. In total I counted 15 vehicles.

A big surprise was the scoop of the show, at the booth of the
Grand Garage Français (法大汽车行). It was a brand new Delage chassis with a four-wheel brake system, quite unique at that time when two-wheel brake systems were the norm.

And then the Citroën, already a favorite among Shanghai motorists, which has been greatly improved in 1921. It is a much better looking car, in every aspect. 

Grand Garage Français showed also a new and improved model of De Dion Bouton. A fine display of Michelin tires completed the Garage’s exhibit at the show.

Great interest was shown in the exhibit of Reiss and Co. (Reiss Bros Ltd.) (茂和洋行): the British car, the Bean car, has attracted much attention since the war (1914-18) by reason of the widely heralded fact that it is a ‘mass production’ car. It is a beautiful car to look at, it is also a fine car to ride in. Three Bean models were shown, and in addition Reiss and Co. exhibited two Triumph motor cycles. 

Anderson, Meyer and Co., Ltd. (慎昌洋行) showed the latest model L27 Milburn Light Electric Coupes, painted Brewster green, with cream wheels.

The exhibit of the Shanghai Horse Bazaar and Motor Co. Ld., (龙飞汽车马车行) was very attractive, and particularly notable because of the class and world wide reputation of some of the cars shown, including the Rolls-Royce, the most expensive car in the show, the Studebaker and Maxwell from America and the Italian Fiat. 

The Rolls-Royce shown carried a body that was designed and built in the Horse Bazaar shops, and a close inspection of the body revealed it to be equal in very respect of bodies built in the best custom shops of England and America. The car was a landaulet type, with leather top that can be laid back for summer use.
The three Studebakers; a Big Six, a Light Six and a Roadster, were all with special bodies built in the company’s own shops. 
Including  two Maxwell and a Fiat 501, the only Italian car in the show, I counted seven cars.

The cars shown by Hudford Motors (怡昌汽车行) consisted of several models of the three lines represented, namely the Ford, the Hudson and the Essex.
Five Ford cars including an extension limousine were exhibited. This limousine is a special job developed by body designers in Shanghai. The wheelbase is extended to 3.15m, this length makes possible a seven passenger car. 

One of the Essex cars, a roadster, carried a special body built by the Walton body company of New York. In addition was an Essex touring car and a limousine with special body.

The Hudson representation consisted of a speedster, a seven passenger touring car and a limousine, all very beautiful cars, and all finely displayed.
In total I counted 13 cars at the Hudford booth.

Three of the special bodies that were shown in the Hudford booth were built by Shanghai’s largest and best equipped body building company, the Universal Motor Car and Body Works (怡昌车行). 

The Universal Body Company has an immense factory that is equipped to turn out any kind of a motor car body job, from the smallest single seater to the largest truck. The company has a large staff of highly trained Chinese workmen, under supervision of foreign experts.

One of the small but exceedingly attractive exhibits was that of the China Mutual Trading Company Ltd. (中国相互贸易有限公司), representatives in China of the Albert motor car and Rudge-Whitworth motor cycles. China Mutual showed two Alberts, a handsome two seater with special body and a touring model.    

The Renault car and the Michelin tire came in for a very fine display in the Auto Palace Company (利威汽车行) exhibit. The car in question been shipped at mr. Ryton’s special request. 

This text and pictures are based on the articles in the Oriental Motor magazine 1920-21,  put on line by the Smithonian Libraries. A great thanks to them!