Empire Made ??

[Just Plain Curt]

Just a fast picture of one of my last buys, a Halina Paulette Electric. Stamped on the rear is " Empire Made". As Halina cameras were generally made in Hong Kong by Haking, makes me curious why this stamping? British Empire or Empire Camera Co. ?

[John Farrell]

That would be the "British Empah, on which the sun never sets"!

[PeterW]

Hi Curt,

Empire Made = made in the British Empire, of which Hong Kong was the last surviving territory.

It's a hangover from the days when Britain had an Empire, and goods made in the British Empire enjoyed a lower rate of import duty into the UK than goods made in other countries. It was called the 'Empire Duty Preference Scheme', and was usually part of a reciprocal trade agreement to help our exports. Goods from non-Empire countries had to have either the country of origin or 'foreign' marked on them.

I think the scheme applied also to Commonwealth countries, and may be the reason why you tend to find more old Kodak folders in the UK from Kodak's Canadian factory than from the Rochester US factory.

It was very common to see Empire Made on goods in the 1930s, but I think Haking's cameras were one of the last, if not the last, to use it.

I believe the 'country of origin' marking still applies. I had a quick look round some of my cameras and they've all got Made in Germany, Made in the DDR (or GDR), Made in Japan, Made in USSR or wherever marked on them unless they were originally 'home market' cameras and came over here secondhand or as 'grey imports'.

It used to be a way of spotting new cut-price mail order 'grey import' cameras paid for in the UK but shipped individually from Japan, China, Russia and so on, sometimes with a false value customs declaration slip in indecipherable scrawl or marked 'gift' on it.

Another little dodge was to ship them individually via Hong Kong and label the customs slip 'Camera from Hong Kong', again with a false value, to get Empire preference lower import duty till the Customs and VAT people got wise to that one as well.

A dodge going at the moment is for the seller to import new cameras and electronic goods in bulk to one of the newer EU countries where import restrictions are more lax, sell them as Buy it Now on ebay, with a UK seller's location but the listing says 'from XXXX' (wherever), and then ship them individually because goods posted between EU countries don't need a customs declaration, and the recipient isn't charged VAT. Some new Russian cameras come here via Poland in this way.

Trying to get guarantee work done on these cameras or, in the case of computer goods, trying to register with the maker for after-sales support is another thing entirely.

Wasn't it Dr. Johnson who wrote that people who buy on price alone are the seller's fair game?

PeterW

[mickeyobe]

Lest We Forget.

"That would be the "British Empah, on which the sun never sets"!
and
"It's a hangover from the days when Britain had an Empire,"



I believe that 2 cents would take your lertter anywhere in the British Empire.

Mickey

[John Parry]

Then of course we took over the Sudan and we looked after Egypt for a while, thus completing the 'Cape to Cairo' thing. I know it sounds the wrong thing to say in this day and age (India are officially a richer country than we are), but while I was at sea I sailed with many Indian crewmen who wished that the British had never left.

Not bad though, only took them 60 years to get their act together!

[Just Plain Curt]

Thanks John and Peter,
Knew there were a considerable bunch on here with more knowledge than myself.
Hey There Mickey, Looks like we have something else in common other than cameras. I have Canadian stamps from 1959 back in Mint or VG Cancelled and from 1959 up in mint unused. Been collecting those almost as long as cameras. I've got two examples of that stamp although both cancelled. Gotta dust off the collection one of those days as its taken a back seat for the last few years.

[John Farrell]

The caption on that stamp is a fine example of hubris!

[kiev4a]

johnrparry said:

Then of course we took over the Sudan and we looked after Egypt for a while, thus completing the 'Cape to Cairo' thing. I know it sounds the wrong thing to say in this day and age (India are officially a richer country than we are), but while I was at sea I sailed with many Indian crewmen who wished that the British had never left.

Hey John:

Is that like when we go to Los Vegas and the folks there say the place was actually more fun when the mob ran it? :-)

[John Parry]

I know- when the British left, there must have been many people who were left out, having 'hitched their horses to the Empire wagon'. I don't mean to be hurtful here, but it must have been very similar to the American evacuation from Vietnam - and I was personally involved with picking up a few pieces from that.

Las Vegas sounds good - I can count cards.....

Regards - John

[kiev4a]

Yep. In any change like that there are always people who picked the wrong side and pay a price. The Tories after the American Revolution are another example.

A lot of folk in Vegas really do feel that way. When the mob ran things there was a lot of freebies and cheap food to attract customers. Now you pay for EVERYTHING--and you a a lot.

[mickeyobe]

Curt,

I stopped collecting in 1977 when I felt the post office had forsaken its integrity and was more concerned with issuing as many stamps as possible every year to sell to collectors rather than for their legitimate use to prepay postage.
It was shortly after they had abandoned that gorgeous intaglio printing for multi coloured offset.

I still have my collection. I never cared about mint or used, just filling in those empty spaces and acquiring varieties.
I collected primarily Canada and anything I could find related to Canada or Canadians.

It used to require quite a set up and considerable time and effort to photograph them. Now, with digital, it is almost point and shoot.

Mickey

[Just Plain Curt]

I've got news for you guys, if you've been to Vegas in the last few years (4 times in 10 years is plenty) you'd realise that nothing is free and chances are pretty durn good the mob still controls 90% of it one way or another, LOL.
Hi Mickey, Still got mine too but haven't added to it since around 1981 when I got stupid and bought Hockey cards for three or four years. (anyone need three or four grand worth of almost worthless cardboard?)

[PeterW]

You really started something with this thread Curt, and now it s got around to Las Vegas and stamps.

To bring it back to the British Empire (and God Bless all who sail in her), there was, strangely, sparse public interest in the Empire in the 1800s but it started to take off after 1904 when Empire Day was started. This was held on May 24 each year and developed into a public holiday with parades and celebrations.

I was at school in the 1930s when pride in the Empire was at its height (it was always being drummed into us). Every May 24th we gathered in the playground in the morning, the Union Jack, or Union Flag as the head insisted on calling it, was hoisted from the school flagpole - the only day of the year it ever carried a flag!

What brought this to mind was the first line in Mickey's posting. We all sang:
Lest we forget we all are met
To sing this country's praise,
This month of May on Empire day ... etc
After that we had the rest of the day off.

With apologies to our American friends here I must relate the following little story:

About 1937 or perhaps 1938 on Empire Day several of us met two similar aged American boys who were over here with their family visiting English relatives. The conversation went something like:

"You mean it's the only day you raise the British flag at school? In our school back home they raise the Stars and Bars every morning at playground assembly, and we all sing the Star Spangled Banner." (or maybe it was My Country tis of Thee, I forget now).

One of our group was a year or so older than most of us, and our self-appointed spokesman. He replied:

"Ah well, we don't have to be told every day that we're the best nation in the world. We're born with that knowledge. They just remind us once a year!"

Talk about the spirit that built the Empire!
Whatever happened to it?

It was alive and well and living in Britain in 1940. Maybe it died in Penang and Singapore in 1941.

In 1958 Empire Day was changed to Commonwealth Day and the date shifted to the second Monday in March. But it was never the same after the war, and by 1958 of course, we hadn't got an Empire worth talking about.

Sic Transit Gloria!

BTW, May 24 was chosen because it was the late, great Queen Victoria's birthday. She died in 1901.

PeterW

[mickeyobe]

In Canada May 24 is celebrated and always has been, as long as I can remember, as Queen Victoria's birthday.

Hence the school chant:
May the twenty fourth is The Queen's birthday.
If we don't get a holiday we'll all run away.

It is still celebrated with a long weekend closest to the 24th.


It was celebrated with fireworks. With our burgeoning Chinese population the fireworks are more spectacular then ever. She would be amused.

Mickey

[kiev4a]

Peter:

If they said they were raising the "Stars and Bars" that's the Confederate Flag. Must have been from the South. Some of them were still fighting the Civil War in the 1930s.