This set of hand-carved wooden blocks featuring company names was previously used in Kuon Ying Press(冠英印务局), a printing shop based in Kampar—a town in Perak, Malaysia. This set features the company names of local establishments such as Guang Yi Xiang (广义祥)—the oldest convenience shop in Kampar, and Guang Ren Tang (广仁堂)—a Chinese medicinal hall. Before the advent of computers, mass printing of text, logos and patterns was accomplished by carving characters and images onto pieces of wooden blocks. Ink was applied to these blocks before they were pressed onto printing surfaces or materials to create one print. Kuon Ying Press was established in the 1920s and printed a variety of materials ranging from cinema tickets to wedding invitation cards for the local community. Kuon Ying Press also served as a half-way house for immigrants from the founder’s hometown in China (Heshan, Guangdong) who stayed at the shop while they search for jobs in Malaya. The shop remained in operation during the Japanese Occupation and might have printed for the Japanese army as well.
