Graca & Co. [????-????]
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Submitted by David on Mon, 2011-09-19 17:01
Name:
Graca & Co.
Type:
Business
Status:
Inactive
An advert in the 1911 guide "Picturesque Hong Kong" shows they were located in the Hong Kong Hotel Building on Pedder Street. And to make any eBay buyers / sellers weep, they offered "Illustrated Post Cards, 36 for $1"!
The advert is displayed in the Early Hong Kong Travel exhibition.
Regards, David
Photos that show this organisation
 1902 |
 1909 |
 1946 |
Comments
Graca & Co @ 27 Des Voeux Road
Ron Rakusen notes a postcard shows a hoarding on Wyndham Street advertising this company:
I bought it because (as a stamp collector) it shows a hoarding on the right that says:
Graca & Co
27 Des Voeux Road
Dealers in
POSTAGE STAMPS
And
All philatelic goods
Pictorial Postcards
Manila Cigars
Birthday Cards
Albums, Novels, Lenses
Flower Seeds
Etc. Etc. Etc.
Quite a cosmopolitan shop! Graca & Co were well known stamp dealers for many years in Hong Kong. I certainly have their envelopes with stamps from 1930’s to the war and I believe they were also operating for a few years after the war.
No date on the back (unused) but published by the Turco-Egyptian Tobacco Store, Hong Kong, Queens Road, Old Post Office Building.
Graca & Co @ 27 Des Voeux Road
A 1909 advert, courtesy of IDJ:
Graca & Co
Graca & Co is a well known name in the world of old Hong Kong/ China postcards. However, apart from various advertisments appearing on postcards and postal history, there appears to be little information about the founder, the company and dates it operated. I recently came across (and now own) this correspondence dated 7 Sep 1946 which includes information about the passing of the founder of Graca & Co: "With much regret we beg to inform you that our [Senor] Mr F.M.P. de Graca passed away on the 28 Aug [1946]". Other interesting detail is the handwritten address of No 14 Ashley Road, Kowloon struck over No.10 Wyndham Street, its last know place of business. It would appear that after the death of Senor Graca, the staff äre unable to give details of what's in stock', suggesting the business will have terminated soon after.
Furthermore, a google search for F.M.P. de Graca returns information from the 1906 edition of the Directory and Chronicles of China about a clerk by the same name working at the China Sugar Refinery Co (part of Jardines Group). Was he a part time postcard seller?
He appears to have stopped production by 1905
Graca's own postcards, with the 'Graca & Co. Hongkong, China' imprint, seem to have gone out of production by 1905. This is according to their postmarks and to the fact that they didn't show the 1906 typhoon, and possibly you have solved the riddle as to why - Graca himself had taken up a full-time job at Jardine's sugar refining company, and could no longer, or no longer wanted to, devote time to producing his now famous postcards. The Graca adverts offering large bundles of postcards for a cheapish price may have been him selling of his remaindered stock in a clear-out, or he may have been selling wholesale postcards produced by other publishers.