CNG 108, Lot: 904. Estimate $1000. Sold for $2100. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

CHINA, Qīng dynasty. Mih-Ho-Loong Fire Brigade. Founded 1866. AR Medal (32mm, 14.05 g). Long service medal. By Ortner & Houle. Issued before 1904. MIH-HO-LOONG SHANGHAI, coat-of-arms surmounted by dragon left; below, ribon reading SAY THE WORD AND DOWN COMES YOUR HOUSE / Blank. Medal Year Book 364. EF, toned, lacking the original black and red ribbon. Very rare.

The Mih-Ho-Loong Fire Brigade was founded in 1866 as a private fire brigade serving the cosmopolitan city of Shanghai. It was apparently composed primarily of Westerners, with some native Chinese laborers. Following the Tientsin Massacre in 1870, the company petitioned to be organized as a military unit, and the parallel Mih-Ho-Loong Rifles was formed shortly thereafter. The later persisted through the Xinhai Revolution and into the 1930s.

As with many Western organizations in Shanghai at the time, the Mih-Ho-Loong Fire Brigade also served an important social function: “The first ball we attended in Shanghai was the prettiest I have ever been to. It was given by the Mih-Ho-Loongs – the Hook-and-Ladder Company of the Shanghai Volunteer Fire Brigade. ‘Say the word and down comes your house’ is their motto, and at their annual ball they dance in their uniforms of scarlet and black, girt with leather. It is always considered one of the best balls of the season...” (Helen F.M. Lewis, “A Shanghai Season,” in Canadian Magazine, XXI.1 [May 1903], p. 8)