China Inland Mission collection box, circa 1920.

[London : CIM, c.1920]. Wooden box, 115 x 77 x 55 mm, with chromolithographic labels to three sides, the two larger illustrated labels both headed ‘COMRADESHIP FOR CHINA’ and with subheadings ‘YOUNG PEOPLE’S BRANCH OF THE CHINA INLAND MISSION’ and ‘TO HELP WIN THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF CHINA FOR CHRIST’; a much later label on the underside is proof that the box remained in constant use up until the 1960s; surface scratches overall, commensurate with extensive use, although the illustrated labels on the two longer sides are substantially intact and overall in good condition.

The China Inland Mission was founded in 1865 by James Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), a British missionary who worked in China for over half a century. It was a non-denominational organisation that welcomed missionaries from all Protestant groups, including single women. In its first few decades the CIM campaigned vigorously against the opium trade, ensuring Taylor’s reputation as one of the most influential Europeans to visit China in the nineteenth century.