About 15 years or more ago before the colour postcards of Borneo were printed by Sanbride, there was a series of monochromic postcards published by F & K Chinn showing Kudat and Labuan and printed by Sanbride. Conceivably, there are others apart from these four here which are the only ones that I have seen so far. Chinn was probably based at Kudat.
The Kudat Market is depicted here. There is no year date but it should be 1906 or later due to the lack of clear margins around the card where a message is usually scribbled prior to 1906.
Kudat Town and Harbour in 1906
Kudat Town and Harbour 1907
Labuan Government House circa 1906
Along the vertical line were these letters printed to confirmed Sanbride was the printer. This was before the logo with the steeple of St Bride Church on Fleet Street, London was adopted.
Update 9 April 2025
I have found another postcard of this series on the net. They are probably some others.
Update April 2026
Google Gemini AI is really useful and came up with a whole load of information which I can not find anywhere else. Apparently, the Chinns were an Eurasian family based at Kudat who worked in the civil service. Francis Chinn was a Treasury clerk with the BNB civil service and his brother Kenneth was also in the civil service. They later went into private business and F&K Chinn photographers was one of their ventures. They later moved to Labuan. To this day there is a legacy firm in Labuan called F&K Chinn that specialises in accounting, tax and company secretarial work.
