Before the invention of aluminum and alloys, daily utensils were mostly made of brass and iron. Brassware shops made and sold brass or copper containers. The larger ones had shops in the front and mills at the back, and the smaller ones did manufacturing and sales in one place. Apart from kettles, pots, plates and spoons, brassware shops also made and sold wooden accessories and fittings for wooden chests and doors such as wrapped corners, hinges, hoops and locks.

Illustrated here are two types of brassware shop signs. One is a black rectangular board, inlaid with the form of a brass plane for wooden articles, with a trailing red silk sign pendant. The other is a white board adorned with copper pieces of kettle, spoon and bottle, as well as a section or silhouette of a cylindrical kettle. A sign pendant is trailing underneath.