Many Japanese needle tins were made for export so all designs and descriptions needed to be in English. As is the case with many translations from Asian languages into English, small errors in spelling and grammar are common. One that appears on a few Japanese tins is the word "ABUT" instead of "ABOUT" when referring to the number of needles the tin held, as can be seen on the two Beethoven tins above. With the Japanese generally so focussed on detail and getting things ri

Happy New Year! With 2016 now here we are expecting our first shipment of over 100 tins to arrive from Japan in the next couple of weeks. Only some of these are good enough for our site but there are some great finds amongst them. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter for more information and put it in your diary to check back with us soon. There will be plenty of reasons to SMILE this year.