A 'wisteria' Stemcup, Qing dynasty, circa 1900.

From the collection of Sigurd Yngve Eurén (1890-1990). A Swedish engineer, who initially came out to China in 1917 to work with setting up a net of radio masts. He then got a job building bridges over the many rivers that connected to the Yangtze river. After a couple of years, he moved to Shanghai and set up his own business exporting tea, with an office at the Bund. It was during the lively social gatherings in Shanghai he met his future wife, the American Pearl Lilian, who he married in 1925. They moved to a villa in the Shanghai and soon had two sons. He came to be factory manager and later on, Site Manager for Svenska Tändsticks Aktiebolaget (Swedish Match). When the war came he sent his family to America but stayed on during the Japanese invasion to watch over the company factories. His family later on settled in Djursholm, Stockholm, Sweden.